


A Darker Madness

by TheGothFanficWriter



Category: Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (Movies - Burton), American McGee's Alice
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Alice in Wonderland Fusion, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Gore, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Love, Minor Original Character(s), One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Past Torture, Sad with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Tags May Change, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 19:54:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20766047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGothFanficWriter/pseuds/TheGothFanficWriter
Summary: Alice had just returned from the asylum, her mind supposedly healed from whatever madness that plagued her. But as the real becomes more and more grating, she finds herself returning to Wonderland. However, it's much more murder-ie than she remembered.





	1. Chapter I: Sane?

((Disclaimer: Even though this is technically a fanfiction, it's more of an adaptation. As I more or less make my own version of Alice in Wonderland but adding in certain aspects from several sources. Mainly the Burton movies, Lewis Carroll novels, and finally the American Mcgee Alice and it's sequel Alice the Madness returns. So don't expect this story to focus on one particular version of Alice in Wonderland. If that isn't a problem please enjoy the story.))

The carriage ride home was very dull.

She had been alone ever since she got in and there was no way to talk to the carriage driver.

Leaving Alice to her own devices, which only allowed her to look out the carriage window at passing scenery and to fiddle around with all the pins and buttons on her dress.

She should be happy, overjoyed in fact about today, she was returning home after six long years.

But, she was more scared than anything.

It was hard to imagine, Alice Kingsleigh, the young brave girl scared of simply returning home. But, it was true.

She hadn't even been aware she had been gone for so long until very recently, her mind had been emptied by the doctors while she was away from home. 

They gave her a lot of medicine that made her really, sleepy, it made it hard to think. Her mind would be completely empty no ideas, no dreams, no hopes she was just there. 

She would just spend so much of her time simply sitting on a chair and existing. Nothing more.

Anything she actually did was because the doctors told her to do so.

Looking back on it she felt like a human puppet of sorts unable to think or do anything her only actions being controlled by someone else.

The thought terrified her.

She didn't remember everything, there were very big and alarming gaps in her memory, but recently the doctors began giving her smaller amounts of the medicine and slowly Alice began to regain her senses.

Slowly realizing where she was, why she was there and how long she had been there. Honestly, at the time, a part of her wanted to continue her large doses of medicine. Her empty mind didn't have so much alarming information.

Last week the doctors claimed she was cured and could go home after the paperwork had been sorted out. Her mother and sister had been ecstatic.

That was another thing, despite her mother and her sister Margaret claiming to have visited her several times throughout her stay, but she couldn't remember, but one or two of them.

Did they lie? Did the medicine make her forget? Was her mind just that broken?

Everything was uncertain, Alice knew that when she was first sent there she could at least confirm a few things about her everyday life.

Now she didn't know if anything was for certain.

Alice didn't feel ready to go home, there was still so much she wanted to know, no needed to know. It was like someone played a game of chess and removed her from it then threw her back into it when several chess pieces already moved far from where they were originally were.

Alice tried to mentally prepare herself as much as she could, even if a lot of things have changed it was still home and things would eventually come back to her.

After several hours of riding, she finally arrived at her own home. 

Hesitantly she picked her suitcase, full of what very little belongings she had. And exited the carriage.

The doctors told her very little about what was to happen, just that she was to pack up, get dressed, and get into the carriage.

Alice didn't understand much of it, she only had five things to pack and the only thing she had to wear was the one nightgown they provided her.

One of the nurses actually got mad at her for even considering wearing her nightgown to return home.

They had later given her a different dress that apparently her mother had sent her, but no one had ever told her she had been given a different dress in the first place.

The same nurse then got frustrated when Alice didn't know how to put on the dress.

Which was unreasonable, she only wore the nightgown for her stay and nothing else. How was she supposed to know how to put on such a complicated dress? It had so many petticoats, buttons, lace and not to mention the stockings, chemise, and the bloody corset.

It was a nice dress and it was her favorite color, blue. But it was very comfortable to wear and hard to move around in.

Then after that, she had to have all her hair pulled back into a tight bun. This actually made a little sense to her, helped keep her hair out of the way, but it did begin to feel uncomfortable after a while.

Was she suppose to dress like this every day? She hoped not.

It didn't take long for her mother to greet her once the carriage left her in the front of their estate. 

Her mother was nothing but welcoming. She talked about how great it was to have her back and how amazing it was they found a cure. And other things of the same notion.

All Alice could do was nod, it felt odd having to see her mother as a stranger, but she honestly felt like she was talking to a different person. 

The last memory she had of her mother was when she still looked young, her hair a lovely shade of chocolate brown, her skin nice and clear. And now her hair was grey and wrinkles covered her face, she was still beautiful, but so different from the woman she remembered.

Even if she could say something to her mother, she had no idea what to say. Though her mother did visit her a few times or at least that's what Alice remembered, they have barely had a proper conversation in six god damn years.

What was she supposed to say now?

Her mother led her inside, talking all the way about how great it was to have her and how everyone missed her.

It just made Alice more anxious thinking about how much distressed she caused everyone.

Her mother tried talking to her some more, but Alice insisted on heading to her room to calm down.

Her mother while too happy about it, seemed to somewhat understand.

Alice doubted it though, she didn't think anyone would understand what she was going through right now.

Her home didn't look, smell, feel and probably wouldn't even taste familiar to her at all. She might as well have walked into strangers' homes.

Actually, strangers home would be better, at least in a stranger's home she would know it was okay not to feel any familiarity. 

But, she was raised here.

Surely she should feel some kind of nostalgia, but nothing here looked the same. It was so surreal.

She did feel some relief when she got into her room, a lot of her things remained untouched. Her drawings, her old toys, and even the same ugly colored rug that was here when she was a child.

For a second she felt relieved, but it quickly vanished as she began to realize something.

The paper her drawings we're on had aged and the color looked entirely different. Her toys also looked old and not properly cared for. And the rug was on the verge of falling apart.

Even though no one just threw her things out, but no one cared for them either. Did they just expect her to never come back? Surely that couldn't be it, they were told of her arrival ahead of time.

Weren't they?

Surely they would.

Did they just forget about it all? Forget about her room? Or did they forget she was coming?

_Of course, they forgot about you, Alice. You were in the hospital for six god damn years! They have better things than to worry about an insane girl. _

Alice quickly shooed away her thoughts, she hated whenever they rudely interrupted. She often liked her thoughts, but some thoughts were much more negative and ruder than others. They weren't invited to stay in her head and she would always put them out, but they always come back!

With a sigh, she sat on her bed. Even though she was home, it sure didn't feel like it.

The doctors said she regained her sanity, but she was seriously doubting it right now. A sane person would think of her home as home. A sane person would be happy to be home.

Maybe she was still insane deep down.

Then again she supposed they if she was sane it was a good thing she got out of that hospital, being the only sane person in a place full of insane people be the same as putting an insane person in a place full of sane people.

Alice couldn't help but giggle at the thought.

It almost reminded her of Wonderland-

_NO!_.

_No Wonderland! No Wonderland! No Wonderland!_.

_Oh Alice you stupid stupid girl! Don't you ever learn?! Wonderland is what got you into this situation in the first place!_

Alice hushed all her thoughts, making sure they were very far away from her. She was already well aware of how dangerous it was to think about Wonderland. But, she knew it wasn't real now.

It was all an allusion, just some mad dream. A very realistic dream, but just a dream nonetheless. She must have been bonkers to think of Wonderland, and she must have been completely bonkers for it to have seemed so real and she must have been even more bonkers to believe it was real after it was all over. No matter how real it seemed. 

Still, she guessed in theory Wonderland seemed like a nice place. So bright, colorful, no rules and the residents were quite fun. The White Rabbit, the March Hare, the Chesire Cat, and of course the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter had been favorite out of all of them.

Even though Wonderland was pure madness, it sounded like such a lovely place right now.

Her home wasn't home. It was more like a big reminder. A reminder that she hasn't been here for so long, a reminder of all the things she missed, a reminder all the time she spent alone, and a reminder of all the things that changed while she was good.

If she couldn't recognize her home, imagine what it would be like it when she met her other relatives, her childhood friends, or....or....herself!

Alice stood wide-eyed at the vanity in her room. She knew it was there, but didn't give it any attention until now.

She finally looked at herself and she shouldn't be as surprised as she was by her appearance, but she was! She didn't recognize herself, of course, she had been aware of her changes like her height, and her development of breast. But, everything else. Well, everything else was....wrong.

Her skin was paler than a corpse, her hair even though it was naturally curly looked rougher than it should be as though it hadn't been properly watched, and she looked famished. As though she hadn't eaten properly in weeks! She resembled a corpse more than a living person.

Alice had to process the fact that she looked like this. And then process the fact that she actually didn't notice that she didn't notice her appearance until now. Surely she would look into some type of reflective surface and saw that she looked so ghastly. Surely she would have? Right? Right!?

Alice sat down, unsure of what to do or how to feel. She began to truly doubt her sanity again. How had she not noticed? Was else had she not notice? Hell was this even real? Maybe she was caught into another mad dream? At this point she wanted it to be a dream. At least in a dream, she would know what she looked like!

Alice could feel herself tear up, this was supposedly the real world and she never felt more confused. Blast it all! This was true insanity!

Alice let tears run down her face.

Had she gone mad?


	2. Chapter II: Don't Belong

A few weeks had passed and Alice had begun to settle into her home.

Well, mostly.

Once she got used to things, another thing would pop up and set her off course.

And she had learned a lot of things had changed.

First, her father was dead.

The day after she arrived, she had tea with her mother and happen to ask when her father would be returning. Assuming he had been another one of his business trips, he was a merchant after all.

Her mother's smiling face turned into a frown, for a moment she seemed confused. Eventually, she very hesitantly and slowly say the one sentence that broke her heart.

"Alice. Your father has been dead for three years."

It was like someone smashed her heart into a million pieces as though it were a mirror. 

Her father had been dead? For three years? Why did no one tell her? Or did they tell her and she didn't remember?

As soon as Alice thought she beginning to understand she quickly felt very confused and hurt again.

Honestly, she had been looking forward to seeing her father ever since it had been announced she would be heading home. Not that she wasn't looking forward to seeing her mother, she loved her very much, but she was so much closer to her father.

Her father understood her better than anyone she ever knew, he listened to her, didn't criticize her for being too strange or too unladylike, he liked her creativity and encouraged her to pursue her dreams.

She wanted to desperately tell him about her experiences at the hospital, about how home didn't like home anymore, and how everything felt so uncertain.

Now she couldn't. She couldn't have done it for three years apparently.

Alice couldn't tell her mother these things, if anything if she did tell her, she would just send Alice back to the asylum again. 

After hearing the news that her father had been dead for so long, Alice just went back into her room and laid down on her bed.

She didn't cry, but she wanted to.

The next big shock was with her sister Margaret. She was married, but that wasn't a big surprise. Alice remembered them discussing her engagement before she left. No, she wasn't too surprised by that at all.

No, it was the fact that Margaret was with child that surprised her. 

Yes, Margaret was, in fact, pregnant and the child would be born in less than four months. 

Alice couldn't deny that she was surprised, she knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but she just didn't expect it to happen so soon after she arrived.

Would it have been better for her to have a child before Alice arrived? Probably not. Alice didn't really know how to handle children.

So maybe it was for the better, but still, she didn't even have four months to prepare herself till a tiny version of Margaret and her husband would be running around.

It felt like too much to fast. And everyone expected her to catch up just like that. Honestly, Alice wondered if they expected the same result by putting a page from the beginning of a book and putting it somewhere close to the ending. Did they expect that page to just catch up with the rest of the story?

Alice might have told Margaret about her feelings if Margaret hadn't been so happy about all of it. Margaret was overjoyed about having Alice back and be able to see the birth of her child.

She went on and on about how great it will be, the baby could meet their aunt Alice, how Alice could play with it and learn how to raise for when she had children.

Nevermind the fact Alice felt like her life was on fast-forward or the fact Alice didn't even really want children. Alice felt like she had to cage her emotions up and just act like she was just as happy about this as everyone else.

Though the baby only brought more worry and anxiety to her. Again, Alice had no idea how to handle children, much less babies. What if she hurt it somehow or scared it?

Another thing she realized was that is what if the baby inherited her insanity?

It seemed ridiculous, but one of the few things she remembered about the hospital was the doctors talking about the possibility of Alice getting her condition from a distant relative or something like that.

She was pretty sure they were just talking about it in theory, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible.

Would her niece or nephew end up like her? A madwoman that believed in cake that made you grow and cats that could smile? Would she end up in a hospital with medicine that eats her thoughts and leaves her mind empty? Would she even be fortunate enough to even get out of the hospital?

The very thought made Alice sick. 

There were other things that made adjusting to life difficult.

One of those was Margaret's husband, he wasn't terrible or anything. A little boring, but maybe that was just Alice's opinion. The hospital didn't give her a lot of opportunities for romance of all things.

But, Margaret's husband was very rude to her. He never acknowledged her or anything when she was in the room with Margaret, and when she tried to talk to him he would be very unresponsive. And if they were around in the room he would outright criticize anything she said.

Alice didn't bring it up to Margaret of course, she didn't need any unnecessary stress so close to giving birth. She was sure she would warm up to her husband in time and vice-versa.

The other things were much more insignificant in comparison, but they still were prominent things in her everyday life.

First, it turns out she did have to wear those stuffy dresses every day, even if she wasn't going anywhere. She would also have to wear her hair up, put on makeup, and wear shoes so tight sometimes she wondered if she wasn't careful she might lose a toe.

Having to put it on was bad enough, but her mother got mad at her for knowing all of this was necessary and for not knowing how to put on the dresses or the makeup.

Did everyone just happen to forget where she was for the past six years?

Apparently, as they seemed to be a thousand more rules she had to follow and was expected to know despite never being taught.

Turns out eating was very difficult, there were multiple spoons and forks she had to use, apparently depending on the type of meal she had to use different silverware. It was kind of odd really when did eating become so complicated?

Also whenever she walked in the garden she could only her skirt with one hand, not two, her mother said it showed off too much of her legs. Which was weird, a little above her ankle was too much leg? Really?

And whenever her mother had friends over for dinner, the males could only talk to her if she was sitting on their right. There was no reason for this as far as Alice could see, but it still was enforced.

That still wasn't the end of it either, apparently, there was so much her mother expected her to do once she arrived. Such as getting married and having children, ignoring any opinions Alice had the matter.

Just to show a few examples, 

_"Mother I don't feel like I'm ready to get married-"_

_"Nonsense dear! Everyone is ready for marriage! It's what God intended for us to do."_

Or

_"I don't want to have children-"_

_"Oh, you'll change your mind, children are what brings a woman true happiness."_

Alice had to admit she would have been even more worried about coming home if she had been told all of this ahead of time.

Imagine that.

Why yes Alice you can go home but you'll have to marry some grump that may or may not be older than your father and then be miserable for nine months then pop a little screaming human out between your legs.

She couldn't even have any interest without her mother nagging her. She remembered one conversation she had with her mother when she just happens to mention that she liked shoemaking.

She hadn't tried it herself, but one of the few things she remembered from the hospital was a boy who must have been a shoemaker as he knows an awful lot about how to make shoes. He would explain the entire process to anyone that would listen and Alice must have listened because she remembered a good bit of it. 

The process was oddly fascinating though, she would like to properly learn it if she ever had the chance.

Her mother shut down the idea, claiming that she had no place learning a commoners trade. Even though shoemaking wasn't really that common around here. She didn't recall ever meeting one when she was younger.

Now Alice already had so many expectations and rules to follow, it couldn't get any worse right?

Wrong.

When Alice woke up this morning she was immediately told to put on an even more stuffy dress and even more uncomfortable shoes, then was to get into the carriage.

Her mother has insisted on a full face of makeup and a very elaborate hairstyle. Alice put her foot down on that subject. It wouldn't have just been uncomfortable, but she would have looked ridiculous.

Though her appearance had improved over the last few weeks, she gained a few pounds making her look a little less starved, her skin had gained some color, she was still unhealthy pale, but she wouldn't be mistaken for a corpse if she fell asleep at least. Her hair was the biggest improvement though, after a few days of washing it and brushing it, her hair began to look like it was actually curly instead of a bunch of greasy tangles.

Once she got dressed and got into the carriage, she learned that apparently, they were going to a party. One hosted by the Hightroper family, a very wealthy aristocrat family. Alice was surprised they even got an invitation.

Her mother avoided answering any questions she had. The only question she got answered was why she had to be so dressed up? 

And her mother explained it was because they were going to a party full of very wealthy people. Which made sense, but that didn't answer all of her other questions such as,

Why did she have to go? Why were they invited? Was there a certain reason they were holding this party? If they weren't, did they just hold parties just for the sake of partying often? Or was this just a one-time thing?

All of these questions were ignored.

Her mother didn't talk much during the carriage ride which was a surprise as she liked to talk a lot. 

Alice didn't keep track of the time, but she assumed that a few hours had passed and finally her mother spoke.

And started complaining about her dress, guess it just occurred to her that maybe Alice would have trouble knowing how to operate such a complicated dress considering she didn't know how to work one of the simpler dresses as they called it. Though none of them seemed simple to her. 

Her mother fixed whatever problems she found, Alice wondered why she didn't bother to fix it beforehand, but she was giving up on understanding her Mother's thought process at this point. 

It didn't take much longer for them to arrive at the Hightroper's estate. 

The party was being held in the garden at the back of their house, it was a gorgeous garden. Lots of different types of flowers, tall hedges, trees and several places to sit. However, Alice felt it was unnecessary. 

It was ridiculously big, you could fit maybe five decent-sized houses in it. No matter how beautiful it was no one needed such a big garden. 

Why not contribute all that wealth to helping others instead of making a huge garden?

Her mother stepped out and being the social butterfly she was, talked to everyone as they entered as though she wouldn't be able to breathe if she didn't.

Alice wanted to head back into the carriage as soon as she stepped out. The party wasn't super large and lavish, but still way too much for her taste. All the large crowds, the loud music, and the..well... everything.

Following behind her mother she could feel her chest tighten, she felt so weird here, like how a playing card would feel if you put it on a chessboard.

Looking around Alice could feel everyone looking at her, these were all noblemen and women alike she was just a possible former madwoman from an asylum.

She didn't belong.

_Of course, you don't belong!_

_Did you actually think you would belong with these people? How stupid are you?_

_Oh, Alice, when will you learn? Your mother brought you as a joke!_

Alice hushed her thoughts, they sounded so unusually loud at the moment.

She kept close to her mother, not wanting to return any of the glares she knew everyone was giving her.

Her mother socialized on her behalf introducing herself to the other attendants, Alice didn't say anything keeping her head down to avoid their eyes. She could tell they were looking at her like a joke or a freakious beast in a cage.

This went on for some time and finally, her mother turned to her. "Alice, darling though I do enjoy your company you should go and meet some of the other guests on your own. I heard the Hightroper's son is very interested in you."

Alice looked up to meet her mother's eyes, was mother mocking her? She had to be. No one would be interested in her. Unless they were looking for a good laugh or something to gawk at. Was that it? Was her mother sending her to just be laughed at? Was she so cruel? Was she going to use her to entertain this guest?

_See! I told you, Alice!_

_Nothing but a freak! _

_Alice, you must be mad if you thought this wouldn't happen._

_Everyone is laughing at you, Alice!_

"No...no...stop it," Alice whispered to her thoughts, they were so loud. 

She looked around, everyone was looking at her. Laughing, pointing and mocking her! Her heart started to pound, she feels the tears building up. How could she have been so stupid? She was just a laughingstock!

_How did you not expect this to happen?_

_Surely you should have known better at this point!_

_Stupid! Stupid! Stupid Alice! Did you seriously think a mad woman like you could be here and not get laughed at?_

Her thoughts were so loud, she could barely hear the band playing anymore. Everyone was staring, everyone was laughing, everyone was laughing!

Everyone with their contorted black faces laughing at her!

Alice felt smaller than any stupid bottle that said 'drink me' could manage. She could swear the room was spinning, the laughter getting louder and louder, and her thoughts were screaming at her all the while.

_STUPID STUPID STUPID ALICE!_

_FREAK! FREAK! FREAK! FREAK!_

_MADWOMAN!_

_IDIOT!_

Her head hurt, it was like someone kept hitting her skull with a hammer. Her stomach was turning like she was sick. 

_But you are sick Alice!_

_Sick in the head!_

_Sick in the head! Sick in the head! Sick in the head! Everyone wants you dead!_

She had to leave. She had to get to away.

She had to.

Slowly she began walking, her feet were like huge rocks and it was the most difficult thing just to put one foot in front of the other.

She ran into a few people, making everyone increase their laughter, Alice bit down her tongue in an attempt to hold back tears. She couldn't cry, not here.

God seemed to have some mercy on her as she quickly found a secluded area. It was a small gazebo behind a large amount of hedges far from any guest.

Alice quickly sat down and let the tears come down, her whole body was shaking. She never felt so humiliated, how could her mother do this to her? Why did she just leave her? Why did her mother just let her be mocked? Why did no one help her? Couldn't they just see how much it hurt her? Were they all so cruel?

_Oh, Alice, you can't blame them._

_Exactly! It's your fault your like this. You can't blame them for that!_

_Anyone would laugh at you, Alice! You should have known better!_

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Alice said to her thoughts, why were they still so loud and worse why did they have to right? Alice knew they were right, she couldn't blame anyone for this! It was her fault! Why couldn't she just be normal?!

Alice curled up in a ball, slowly rocking herself, covering her ears. Her thoughts continued to scream at her, all she wanted for them to shut up! She already got their point! They were just being cruel at this point.

All Alice could do was just sit there and suffer until the went away, though it probably was maybe fifteen minutes at most Alice felt that it might have well been an eternity.

Slowly, she curled herself and stood up. Wiping away any leftover tears, her eyes were probably red and puffy from all the crying.

Alice couldn't return to the party yet, not only would they laugh again, but her head still hurt.

Oh coming to this party was a horrible idea! She should have stayed home!

Alice figured just staying by the small gazebo was the best option. It was unlikely that she would run into anyone or perhaps the better wording for it would be that no one would run into her.

Yes, that sounded better.

Alice stood there for a while, enjoying the quiet. Not something a lot of people appreciated, but Alice's thoughts were so noisy most of the time that having some quiet time was a luxury more than anything.

However, her silence became interrupted by......something odd sounding. At first, she thought it was someone smacking their lips, but it sounded like that there was more to that.

Alice looked around and after maneuvering through some bushes the found the source of the sound.

It was a couple kissing.

Alice would have just walked away out of respect for the love birds, but she noticed two things.

First that the man pinning his lover to the wall was the Hightroper's son, Richard Hightroper.

Again nothing too shocking until she realized who Richard was kissing.

At first glance, you would assume that he was kissing a woman and since their position made it hard to tell who the other person was, you couldn't be faulted for making that mistake. But, if you continued to look long enough you could begin to see that the wealthy Richard Hightroper was kissing a man.

Not just any man, but a commoner. Even though Alice had only been to town maybe once or twice since she been back. But she could tell right off that was the baker she visited, he was nice to Alice and made an amazing pound cake!

Upon realization, Alice gasped, alerting the two of them about her presence.

Almost as if on cue both of them scrambled away from each other as though suddenly the other turned into burning hot lead, Richard turned to face Alice, his face rather bright red and the baker walked away from the situation as hast as he could.

It was done so quickly that Alice was sure they rehearsed this.

It would have been funny if Richard hadn't looked so equally scared as he was mortified.

"Oh..um...Alice....h-h-how much did you see?" Richard stuttered out clearly embarrassed, the poor boy.

Alice furrowed her brows, "You know my name?" 

It was a legitimate question in hindsight, he was an aristocrat after all. Why he be bothered to learn her name? She was only a few steps above a commoner, far from his social status, however.

Richard was flabbergasted at her response, "I-I...of course I would...we are...why wouldn't I-"

"It's okay take your time," Alice said softly, worried boy might short-circuit.

Richard took a long deep breath, "That's not important, just how much did you see?"

Alice thought for a moment. "Just parts."

Richard raised an eyebrow, "Which parts?"

"Your parts and his parts getting together." 

Just when Richard's face when back to normal it suddenly turned redder than his mother's roses.

"Alice!" Hissed hiding his face.

Alice laughed, "Sorry! I couldn't resist."

Again Richard took a moment to regain himself before addressing Alice again. "Alright, you have seen more than you should have, just promise me you won't tell anyone."

"I promise."

"Now I know that- wait. What?" Richard asked as though Alice spoke in a foreign tongue.

"I promise not to tell anyone," Alice stated again.

Richard blinked, "Really? Just like that and you promise?"

"Of course!" Alice said almost offended that he thought so little of her, "I'm not going to send you to an earlier grave or a life of suffering, because of who you love Richard."

Though Alice was mostly unaware of London's customs, she knew that men who desired men and women who desired women were sentenced to death, prison, or the asylum.

It didn't make sense, you couldn't control who someone loved, so why punish them for it? It was entirely pointless.

Richard after comprehending what Alice said smiled, "Oh thank you, Alice!" He yelled out before hugging her. If Alice hadn't seen his scandalous act she would think of this as a very forward romantic gesture, "You have no idea how much it means to me!"

Alice smiled, awkwardly returning the hug.

It had been a long time since she got a hug, she forgot how nice it was.

Richard pulled away, "Our arrangement might not be as bad as I thought!"

Now it was Alice's turn to raise an eyebrow or attempt to. How could do it so easily!? "What arrangement?" Alice asked confused. Was it a business trade? Alice couldn't imagine her mother or her sister doing some like that.

"Oh, you know the arrangement our parents planned for us, I thought it was going to be miserable, but after meeting you it seems like it won't be too bad after all!" Richard explained happily.

Alice was even more confused, what had her mother planned exactly? It sure didn't sound like a business deal. "Oh. What exactly was the arrangement again?" Alice asked hesitantly. Did her mother tell her about it and she forgot again? Though she felt like she would have remembered something involving her.

Richard looked at her with a bittersweet expression, the type of face you would make if someone put salt in your tea. Then he said the three words that shook Alice to her core.

"Our marriage Alice."

Alice felt her entire world shatter.

Marriage!? Alright, she definitely would have remembered that! Her mother planned her marriage, guess her thoughts on the matter was irrelevant.

Her mother had mentioned quite a lot, how Alice should get married soon, but even her mother had to realize how quick this was! She had been for home for a little over two weeks and she just met her soon to be husband today!

It was all ridiculous, her mother could have at least told her about this life-altering decision that she never got a choice to make in the first place.

Alice's shock was quickly turning into anger. 

"Right," Alice said as calmly as she could manage. Though she wanted to go to her mother and slap the hag right across her face. "I remember that now, but the details are still blurry, could you go over them for me?" 

She wanted to know everything. She assumed that her mother had more reasons than just wanting to have more grandchildren for forcing her into a marriage so soon.

Richard gave a sigh, his parents must have left him under the impression she knew everything and she must have seemed rather slow to him right now.

Nevertheless, he explained everything to her.

Turns out Richard had just as much of a choice in the matter as Alice had, he didn't even know about it until a few weeks together. Still better than what Alice got.

After her father's death, her mother needed someone to run her father's company. As she could only manage it by herself for so long, but Richards's father had seen some potential to really expand the business. 

Her mother was willing to give it to him, but there was no legal way she could give him ownership without her losing any of the profits.

Then they seemed to have a miracle idea as they realized that her mother had a single daughter and he had a single son, their kids could get married, that way they could both earn money and the Hightropers could control the company to an extent.

Their parents did realize that both of their kids wouldn't be too fond of marrying someone that they didn't, so they were to officially meet at this party, talk for a while, then Richard would propose, Alice would say yes, they would announce their engagement, and then they would have a few months to get to know each other before their wedding.

Alice's inner rage continued to grow as she heard all of this, mainly at her mother, she was sure her mother was either an idiot or completely mad.

According to Richard, they had started planning this months ago. Guess her mother had forgotten to mention that her daughter was in a mental institution. Not to mention you think letting the Hightropers know that they would be making their son marry a woman with mental health issues would be pretty important.

Her mother apparently didn't want to risk Richard's parents calling the wedding off because of that. That would mean she couldn't grant the Hightropers her father's company without losing her precious money.

After getting all the information she needed, she excused herself and began on the hunt to find her mother. She could swear that if she was any angrier smoke would be coming out of her ears.

It didn't take long for Alice to find her mother. She was out socializing with all the other guests like she didn't greatly offend her daughter by making her life decisions.

"Mother." She said bluntly, interrupting what any conversation she was having. 

Her mother seemed a bit shocked by this, though her surprise turned into annoyment. Alice didn't care for once, her mother might be a bit peeved at her, but Alice was enraged at her mother.

"I need to talk to you." She looked at all the other guests "Privately."

Before her mother could protest, which Alice knew she would, she grabbed her by the arm and lend her to a private area.

"Alice! What has gotten into you?" Her mother hissed greatly embarrassed by her daughter dragging her away like a disobedient child.

"Why didn't you tell me about my marriage that YOU planned," Alice said gritting her teeth in rage. 

Her mother's face showed that she realized what this was about, "Oh. I see Richard has proposed-"

"No. I ran into him and he just happened to explain what you and his parents planned, plans that I was not made aware of!" Alice interjected.

Her mother sighed, "Oh Alice, you must know that this was for the best! You don't want to lose your father's business do you?"

"That isn't the issue mother!" Alice snapped, "I'm glad you want father's business to continue, but you didn't talk to me about any of this! You didn't see if I wanted to get married, you didn't bother to talk to me about alternative solutions, didn't see what I thought about any of it, and most importantly you didn't tell me about Any. Of It."

Her mother flinched. Alice had never spoken like this to her before, Alice had never talked to anyone like this actually.

"Alice-"

She cut her mother off, "What was your plan mother? To just say yes to her a complete stranger that proposed to me? Maybe if you used your brain for once, things would work out for once!" 

"Alice!" She said shocked, "Hold your tongue you brat!" Her mother almost yelled, but Alice didn't even seem hurt by her mother's pity insult. Her mother sighed, "Alice I know you're upset, but people like you make impulsive decisions all the time." 

Everything suddenly made sense. 

Her mother thought that since she had been in an asylum that she would do something as stupid as a marrying man she had just met. 

Any composure that Alice had vanished like smoke.

"How dare you!" She yelled, "You think because of the time that I spent in the hospital makes a complete idiot!? Mother, what is wrong with you? It's like you haven't bothered to get to know who I am! I would have thought-"

Her mother slapped her.

She began yelling at her about something. But, Alice couldn't hear her. Her rage consumed any rational thought

On instinct Alice pinned her mother down, wrapping her hands around her mother's neck.

The rage was running through her veins, all she wanted was for the damn hag to shut up. Her mother attempted to claw at Alice's hands, but her attempts were in vain. 

Alice was running how pure adrenaline, she could easily overpower her mother.

Truly it was a sight to behold, the way the color began to drain from her face, how slowly the light in her eyes started to vanish, and how she helplessly attempt to call out, but no sound coming out.

Yes, die! Stupid hag like you doesn't deserve to live! Attempting to control her, not listening to her, ignoring her, and now having the nerve to imply she was stupid! She deserved to die! Painfully and slowly! Like the-

A piercing scream interrupted Alice's thoughts, snapping her out of her rage.

It was then that Alice realized what she was doing.

She gasped and pulled her hands away, what had she done?! Was she actually going to kill her own mother?! What kind of monster was she?!

_The insane kind!_

_The worse kind there is!_

_How terrible you are Alice! Hurting your own mother!_

_She was just trying to help! Then you tried to kill her!_

"SHUT UP!" Alice yelled her thoughts were everywhere! So loud! She swayed slightly her thoughts yelling so loud it was like they shook the ground.

_A black-hearted killer! That's what you are!_

_A heartless murderer! You belong behind bars, not some stupid asylum!_

_Sentence her to death! Hang her for her crimes!_

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!" Alice screamed covering her ears to block them out, running off hoping that if she ran far enough her thoughts wouldn't catch up.

Alice didn't know where she was running to, she started running in the direction where there were no people. 

She kept her eyes closed, still covering her ears, only stopping whenever she ran into something.

Alice ran still she couldn't anymore.

Her legs just gave out on her, making her collapse mid-sprint 

Perhaps it was for the best, it made Alice finally look around and her surroundings. It was the woods, yes that made sense, there were some woods close to Hightroper's garden.

Alice started taking deep breaths, all that running catching up to her. She was exhausted!

Briefly closing her eyes and thinking about everything, she started laughing! 

The entire thing was so..so....insane!

Leave it up to her to go to the party, almost kill someone then just run off! 

Laughing Alice fell to the ground, rolling around holding stomach.

She must be insane! Mad! Bonkers!

_Yes, Alice, you are mad. Mad as a hatter!_

Yes always her thoughts were right they were always right. She was mad and didn't belong among the sane.

Tears ran down her cheeks while she laughed, the entire forest began to shake as though it was underwater.

The trees began to grow or maybe she was shrinking, maybe it was both!

Slowly as Alice continued to laugh and cry as the ground consumed her.

Back into madness, she went!


	3. Chapter III: Return to Madness

Alice never understood how going to wonderland worked.

Though perhaps that was the point.

Alice, however, had this weird habit of falling into it.

The first time she fell down a rabbit hole and the other times she went back when she a child it always happen when she tripped or jumped off of something and she would find herself somehow falling into wonderland.

This was no different though sinking through the ground was new.

While Alice had her little laughing fit she sank into the ground as though it were quicksand.

It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but there were worse things to suffer through.

The only real complaint she had was how long it took.

Yes going into the ground took no time at all but when she continued to sink down it took a dreadfully long time. Alice had been worried she might drown and her lungs would be filled up with dirt, a rather unflattering way to die in her opinion.

Eventually, though Alice felt herself begin to emerge out of the ground, it started when she began to feel her feet poke out, then her knees, then her thighs and once it caught to her hips she just slid out and began to fall.

It took Alice a while to fully recognize what was happening.

As it turns out falling through the ground made her come out of the sky and now she falling to the ground far too fast for her taste.

Alice's first reaction to this had been a brief, "Oh."

Then less than a few seconds later she let a horrified scream.

She attempted to grab onto something but only succeeded in flailing her arms around like a monkey while screaming hysterically.

Surprisingly though when she was only at best a few inches away from the ground, she just froze in place.

Alice had closed her eyes at that point and only continued to scream until she eventually realized that she should have hit the ground at this point.

She opened her eyes and very slowly she just put her feet on the ground and stood up.

Well, that was odd.

Alice looked around, she knew this was wonderland as there was no other place that could make anything that just happened possible. But, this didn't look like wonderland at all.

This could be Tulgey Woods, but it didn't look like it.

The trees which would be three times Alice's size and their branches would twist into odd shapes at different angles, each tree would be a different color with a different type of art pattern, and the leaves would be transparent with rainbow tent to them. That would fall on the ground and the ground would look like you were walking on a crystalized rainbow road.

This didn't look like that at all.

All the trees were an ugly brown, all of them slumping over like an old lady with a bad back and no leaves could be found, the ground and grass were blood red, each tree had a gravestone at it. Each grave very poorly buried, if you looked long enough you could see fingers, toes, and parts of the head or even a knee sticking out.

Alice shuddered at the sight of it all.

What the hell happened?

"Oi girl!" A voice piped up from below her.

Alice looked down frantically but didn't see anything for a second she thought the ground had talked to her.

"I'm here!" The voice said again, and this time Alice spotted who said it.

It was a worn, well at least Alice was pretty sure it was a worm. Though it could be a very weird looking snake.

The thing was the same shade of red that the ground was, it was very long if it could stand up somehow Alice was sure it would reach her thigh, it didn't look scaly it looked soft like a worm would and its eyes were jet black like black pools of water.

"Your standing on me patch!" The worm called out to her.

Alice looked down not quite sure what he meant, was he referring to the patch of ground? He must be. She wasn't standing on a patch of anything else.

"Oh! Terribly sorry!" Alice apologized stepping off the patch and onto the trail hoping to not step on another worms patch.

"Tsk!" The worm let out, "A lady your age should know how to locate a blood worms patch!"

Alice tilted her head, "Blood? Worm?"

The blood worm sighed, "You don't get out much do ya?"

"I don't actually," Alice confessed, she had the hospitals to thank for her lack of knowledge on, well, everything.

"That's kinda sad lass." The blood worm said bluntly.

Alice nodded, "I know."

The blood worm let out a long sigh, "Well, lass a blood worm is pretty self-explanatory. We're worms that feed off blood!"

Alice raised an eyebrow, "Human blood?"

The blood worm did something that seemed like the worm equivalent to a shrug. "Any blood really." The blood worm paused looking Alice up and down, "You don't look like your from our wonderland, where did ya come from?"

"Oh. I fell from the sky." Alice explained as though it was a normal thing to confess to someone, only once she said it did she realize how odd it sounded, but before she could try to explain it the blood worm spoke.

"Really?" He asked looking up to the sky, "That makes you the fifth Alice that has fallen through this week! We seem to be getting a lot of them lately, makes me wonder what's going on, on the other side."

Alice had a lot of questions, how did he know her name? What was the other side? And four other girls named Alice fell through the sky? How odd.

Thinking about it now Alice couldn't help but ask, "Did the ground catch them too?"

The worm shook its head, "Afraid not. Most just got lucky and landed on mushrooms. I guess the ground just likes ya lass."

The ground likes her now? Between the ground and Richard, she was slowly gaining a lot of suitors!

Funny as it may be, Alice knew the ground probably just liked her as a friend. And that fine with her. She was too busy right now for romance.

"Oh. Well, " Alice said before squatting down and giving the ground a little pat. "Thank you ground." Alice needn't forget her manners.

She wanted to ask the blood worm about the ground some more, but...

Unfortunately, there were more important things to find out. "Actually, do you mind telling me where I am?"

"Tulgey woods! Or what's left of it." The blood worm said with the same weird movement that Alice was pretty certain was a shrug.

Her heart sank when her thoughts had been confirmed about her location, Tulgey woods was now a very bloody graveyard and no longer the happy place she spent so much time in with her friends.

"It doesn't look anything from what I remember," Alice said to herself, but the worm heard her anyway.

"You must have been gone a long time, it's been like this for decades I'm afraid." The worm explained.

Decades? How much time had passed since she left exactly?

The surprise on her face must have been obvious, "What exactly happened to it to have made it so....bloody?" Alice asked.

"The slaughter of the animal village, I'm afraid."

The animal village? The small town full of talking animals? Slaughtered? How?

The village hadn't been one of the places she visited often, but she had been through it enough times to see it was a fairly harmless place especially compared to other places, why would anyone slaughter its residents?

"What?" Alice asked shooked to her very core.

The worm sighed, "You really don't know much do ya?" He continued before Alice could give any type of response. "Happened a good while ago, the red queen needed some servants as she nearly decapitated all she the ones she had and figured she would ask the people in the animal village if they would volunteers, none did, so she made a new offer. Either they volunteered to be her servants or they get killed." The worm looked at all the graves, "Guess you can see what the majority choose eh?"

"All of these graves....are animals?" Alice asked worry beginning to fill her up, the majority of the people she befriended at wonderland we're animals and a few worked for the red queen for whatever the reason, did they end up dead and buried here too? 

"Not all, " The worm corrected "The Queen had lost a good bit of her army during the slaughter, they WERE animals after all they weren't going down without a fight. The Queen buried them here along with the dead animals and the slaughter wasn't the first time she used this place to dump off a few corpses. Hell, I think everyone in wonderland has lost count of how many people she has had buried here, especially since the river in Crims has filled up."

That didn't help that just made Alice even more worried that all her friends were murdered and buried in a mass grave.

"How...terrible." Alice finally managed to say after processing this information.

The worm nodded, "Afraid it's been like this ever since the first Alice."

Just exactly how Alices have been in this Wonderland?

"What?" Alice asked confused.

The worm let out a bigger sigh, "I'm beginning to think those curly locks of ours are the only thing you got in your head lass." He spat out before explaining, "Years ago some girl from the other side named 'Alice' came and stole the queen's heart, making even more unbearable than ever. Without her heart, she had no limitations on what she could do. So now we have a war every week and slaughter of a village twice a month."

How oddly precise.

Now at first Alice immediately blamed herself for all of this until she realized that well she didn't remember stealing any type of heart when she went to wonderland.

Maybe Alice just forgot, but she was sure she would remember something like that. If anything wonderland her memories in wonderland were the clearest ones she had.

The worm did mention that other Alices kept coming to wonderland, so maybe it was another Alice.

"My..what a terrible thing to do.." Alice said simply, it was a terrible thing for this other Alice to do.

The worm nodded, "Indeed! She left such an impact that she's the reason that we call all outsiders Alice now!"

Wait, what?

The worm continued, "I think that was mainly the queen's influence more than hers though, the queen was quite upset with Alice, in fact, she proclaimed that all Alices from then on should be executed. A bit extreme in my opinion."

Worry began to build up in Alice's stomach. She certainly didn't remember that rule being in place when she was around.

What did this all mean for her?

"E-Executed?" Alice stuttered.

The blood worm chuckled, "Don't worry lass, I won't tell on ya. You're so stupid that it's almost adorable, I couldn't let them kill ya."

Alice never felt so flattered and insulted at the same time.

"Thank you....um..." 

"My names not 'um' its Nate! Never assume someone's name lass!" The worm scolded her. 

"Right. Terribly sorry." Alice said looking around.

What should she do now? Find a way home? It seemed like the safest option especially since she might be killed if she stayed too long. Then again guess it was her fault it was like that wasn't it?

As Alice thought for a moment, she began to feel the ground shake and as soon as she noticed it, Nate screamed. 

"The Bandersnatch! He's coming!"

"Bander-what?" Alice asked.

"The Bandersnatch you stupid girl! He eats blood worms like me for breakfast! I got to get out of here!" Nate yelled attempting to squirm away but was failing to cover much ground.

"Oh, here!" Alice said picking up Nate and running as fast as she could.

Which to get anywhere in wonderland you had to run FAST. 

You see in wonderland to stay in the same place in wonderland you had to run fast and to get anywhere you had to run twice as fast. 

So you can imagine how much Alice was pushing herself. Running in wonderland was very hard, it was like gravity would be pushing you away from the direction you were trying to run to.

With Nate in her hands, she ran away from Tulgey woods and into someplace she didn't recognize. It seemed to be some farming fields though all the crops seemed to be dead and there was the occasional card soldier corpse laying around.

She ran till she was certain there no Bandersnatch thingy.

Stopping she looked at Nate in her hands. "Are you alright?"

Nate seemed to freeze for a second as though what happened just broke his mind like it was fine china. "You..." He said finally, "You saved me.."

"Of course I did!" Alice said appalled that Nate thought she would just leave him, "I wasn't going to let that Bandersnatch thing kill you!"

Nate blinked, "Lass I'm just a blood worm. Most wouldn't even bother to spare me a glance if I was eaten alive."

Alice gasped, "That's terrible. Your life is just as important mine!" Alice said about to place Nate on the ground, but he stopped her.

"Wait, lass!" He called out "I can't live on this patch of dirt, there's no blood on it." 

Oh. Yes, a blood worm would need blood to live properly.

"We'll have to fix that then." Alice placed Nate on her shoulder and started to head to where she saw those abandoned card solider corpses. 

"Oh. Don't bother lass. Just bring me back to Tulgey woods." Nate said seldom.

Alice shook her head, "If that Bandersnatch likes blood worms so much then he will come again, especially in a place where it's full of blood worms."

Nate accepted that explanation.

Finding two corpses Alice dragged them to a patch of ground, plenty of blood through it would take a while for the corpses to properly soak the ground. Looking around Alice found a type of knife in the dead crops.

She picked it up and it was....well she wasn't quite sure what it was. It was most likely some type of farming tool though Alice didn't recognize it.

It was board, long and sharp though it still seemed too small to be a sword and it was too big to be a knife. Whatever it was though it would do fine for the job.

Taking her knife sword thing she gave the corpses a few good cuts and they soaked the ground with their blood.

"Will this be enough?" Alice asked Nate before placing him in her hands.

"More than enough," Nate said deciding to just jump onto the patch of now bloody dirt, "Thank you, stupid girl! This patch should last me two whole years."

"It was the least I could do..." Alice said wondering if she could tell him her real name, she probably shouldn't right now, especially since she had to figure out this stolen heart mystery. Alice looked at the path that leads to Tulgey woods than to the other side of it, "Nate can you tell me what would happen in I continued on this trail."

"You would be walking on that trail then, " Nate said bluntly.

"Oh yes I know that but what would places would I see?" Alice asked.

Nate rolled his eyes, "Why didn't you just say that if the first place, seems like all the kind folk here are dumb.." Alice was pretty sure that the last part was said more to himself than to her, "I'm not quite sure but I know you would probably stumble upon where the village of animals was."

Alice nodded, "I'll go there then. Goodbye Nate."

"What you're just gonna up and leave? Without even a goodbye?" Nate yelled

"But I did say goodbye....." Alice said a little dumbfounded.

"No! No! No! You idiot girl! That's not how you say goodbye to a blood worm!"

"It's not?"

"Of course it's not! Blood worms have such short memories that you can't say goodbye without leaving for me to remember ya by!" Nate lectured.

"Oh," Alice said looking around to see what she could give him, there was her knife sword thing, but she was pretty sure she would need it. She didn't have anything else that she could give him, she didn't wear any ribbons or jewelry despite her mother's insistence.

The most she had was her dress and the many layers that came with it, she needed her clothes though she could give him one of the many petite coats underneath it. But it would take forever to remove one and it would be too big of a gift to give to a worm.

Alice feared that she would have to leave without giving Nate anything. 

But then she realized!

Her shoes!

Perfect!

Usually, shoes would be good for a long journey, but not these!

The stuffy tight shoes that her mother forced her to wear, they were practically death traps wrapped feet! 

Granted very stylish death traps! But her feet didn't need to suffer just for style.

Alice went to work on removing her shoes, it was already a difficult task, but her feet must have swelled up from all the running as the shoes were much tighter than they were before.

Finally getting them off she saw her feet, the striped stockings she wore seemed to be wearing out as it now had holes and a few of her toes were sticking out. 

At first, though it took Alice a while to realize those were her toes. They looked so puffy and red that she originally thought some deformed ladybugs crawled into her shoes.

She shouldn't complain too much though, she could barely feel any pain, she could barely even feel her feet. 

"Here," Alice said placing her shoes on the patch of bloody dirt. "I hope this helps you remember me."

Nate smiled, "With these pretty things I will definitely remember you! They even got blood on 'em!"

"I'm glad then. Goodbye Nate." Alice said heading back on the path.

"Goodbye stupid girl!" Nate yelled after her, "Good luck on your travels!"

Alice waved as she walked away, Nate seemed to return it the best he could without any arms. 

Alice looked ahead, despite everything she just heard and saw about wonderland she felt hopeful for once.

How she should have felt when she was heading home from the hospital in the carriage.

Despite everything, Alice felt like something good would happen for once.


	4. Chapter IV: Welcome back Alice!

Alice never understood how time worked in wonderland.

Though again, she supposed she wasn't supposed to.

Though it was hard to tell she figured it was at least an hour or two when she arrived at the remains of the village of animals.

All the houses looked abandoned and run down. The streets, houses, windows, and everything was stained with blood. Though unlike Tulgey woods is was dried, clearly from long ago.

No animals were in the remains of the village.

Most seemed to be human though they were very odd looking humans. Some were missing limbs or eyes, a few had patches of different colores skin sewed onto them like you would see on a quilt, others were unusually tall or unusually short, and there was one man that had a tail.

Alice briefly wondered asking them about their odd conditions but remembering how she felt when her mother's friends would ask about her time at the asylum or make comments about her weight and how it made her feel Alice decided to just remain quiet.

All the humans seemed to be lounging around not doing anything much. A few called out to Alice though Alice couldn't understand what they said it was hard to tell if they had a very bad speech impediment or was speaking an entirely different language. 

Alice paid them no mind, she was too worried that even nodding would give them the wrong idea. Afterall who knew what she could be agreeing to?

Overall all Alice did was walk through the Village of Animals, it was saddening to see what was such a happy place to be so....abandoned.

Leaving the village Alice found herself into another forest.

This one was not as gory as Tulgey Woods though it was far from being as cheerful and bright as Tulgey woods once was.

The forest was dark in a literal sense. The trees were so thick, tall and the branches so long that it blocked out the majority of any light from the sun.

Because of that the trees looked like they were a blueish blackish color, the grass looked dead and the ground looked more like black goo than actual soil.

It might scare most off, but Alice liked it far more than any of the other places she had been to since she returned to wonderland.

There was no blood, no shallow graves, no deformed humans walking around, and no Bandersnatch thingies.

It was nice and clean, rather cool too! No sun means no heat after all, so the ground was cool to the touch, which felt great on her aching feet. 

Not to say it was completely great. These woods were very easy to get lost in.

To be fair wonderland itself was hard to get lost in, you could be walking in the same place, go in circles countless times, go backward or be going in the opposite direction and not notice it!

This place was particularly bad though, as at least with the rest of wonderland you could see certain landmarks and figure out if you had passed it before. 

Couldn't do that here.

It was just trees and trees and trees and guess what? More trees.

Alice began to get more and more frustrated, if she wanted to get lost in the woods she would have stayed in the Hightropers garden!

After what felt like hours of aimless wondering, Alice found a river. 

It wasn't much but it was a good place for resting.

Though the ground had helped Alices' feet, they still hurt. Maybe she should have kept those shoes, they at least made her unable to feel the pain.

Not to mention the ground had gotten her feet and skirt all muddy, be a good place to clean off.

Alice put her feet in the water and almost moaned in relief, the water was cool which felt amazing on her feet.

After letting her feet settle she attempted to wash the mud and some of the blood off her skirt, though her attempts were in vain as her dress remained stained.

Alice sighed but after seeing her knife sword she then got a brilliant idea.

She could use to simply shorten her dress! It made perfect sense, her dress was too long and had been dragging on the dirt the entire time, constantly getting stuck on things. Making it a little shorter would be perfect, not to mention get rid of the stains parts.

First, she washed off the dried blood on her knife sword, couldn't use to trim her clothes if it was bloody after all! After that she began slashing at her dress, granted looking back at it Alice realized it wasn't the smartest option, but to the girl's credit, it got the job done rather quickly.

Her long skirt now came about an inch below her knee, a few cuts were on her shins along with huge holes in her stockings now, but Alice didn't really care. Even with the cuts she barely felt any pain.

Looking at her dress now Alice couldn't help but wonder why they didn't make dresses like this all the time. Yes, is showing off above her ankle, Alice could hear her mother's shocked gasp from here. But it was so much easier to walk around in, would probably be easier to walk around in and in Alice's opinion looked a lot better. Even with her ripped stockings.

Alice decided to remain in the river for a little longer just to give her feet extra time to heal, as Alice sat there she could swear she could hear some rustling as if someone was walking through the leaves.

She dismissed it at first, after all, it was a forest afterall animals probably run around all the time. Alice quickly realized, however, that animals in wonderland were often sentient and considering what happened since she had arrived in wonderland might be more aggressive than she remembered.

Alice continued to act like she didn't notice anything but was secretly seeking glances around her, she didn't see anything but continued to remain cautious.

Keeping her knife sword close she waited for what would happen. Alice didn't like the idea of hurting anything but she liked the idea of living even more.

In that instance something pounced, Alice couldn't see what that didn't matter though, she grabbed her knife sword and swung endlessly in every direction.

Not the best strategy but, hey, you try to hit something you can't see.

Despite that though, Alice managed to hit whatever it was. At least she was pretty sure she did.

She felt something hit her sword knife and the leaves moved as if something or someone fell onto the ground. 

Alice stood there for a moment, a little dumbfounded, did she kill an invisible, beast? Or did the air try to attack her? If so, did she hurt the air? Possibly kill it? This opened up a lot of disturbing possibilities.

Before Alice could worry about planning a funeral for the air, something slowly came into sight. At first, it looked like a very fluffy patch fur, which let's face it wouldn't be the oddest thing to come out of wonderland.

However, the patch of fur had legs, ears, and when it opened them, she could tell it had eyes! It was then Alice realized it was a cat. 

And there was only one cat she knew in all of wonderland that could vanish and disappear at will.

"Cheshire!" Alice yelled out, running up and picked up the cat, hugging him, "It's so delightful to see you!"

After everything, it was so nice just to see a familiar face!

"What in-" Chesire hiss until comprehending who was holding him, "Wait, Alice? The Alice?"

Alice put him down. "The one and only!"

Chesire seemed both happy and shocked, "My my my Alice. You certainly have grown, you could rival the hatter with your height now."

Alice didn't know how to react to that statement, she had noticed she was taller than most women since she arrived home, but was she unusually tall? 

She was much more interested in the hatter though! Out of all the residents in wonderland, Alice had a special connection to the hatter! She wondered how he was handling everything.

"Hatter! Yes, how is he doing? I hope he is still having his tea parties, they were always the best!" Alice said squatting down to better make eye contact with him.

Chesire had changed as much as she had, she remembered back when she was twelve if she held Chesire he would be more than half her size, but now while Chesire was still a very big cat, but only roughly came to her thigh.

That wasn't the only thing, he was much slimmer and scrawny looking than she remembered. Last time she saw him he wasn't necessarily fat, but he was much rounder. In was a very shocking contrast, part of that might be because he's much more slender form made his wide smile less charming and more frightening.

His fur had changed a good bit too, not for the better in her opinion, his fur had originally been soft and silky with black shiny color with a tent of purple that almost made him glow in the sunlight. Now his fur looked dirty, knotty and very oily, the color simply looking black though with the lack of sunlight his fur looked almost like a murky green.

It was a bit of a shame she would miss petting his silky fur.

Chesire stretched a bit before answering Alices' question, "Afraid that's not a question I can answer."

Alice frowned, "Why not? You use to be with the hatter quite a lot."

Granted the hatter didn't much care for Chesires company, but that seldom stops Chesire from doing anything.

Chesire began to hover, going up and up until he was slightly above Alice, proceeding to roll on hid back. Or his body did anyway. His head remained in place still looking down at Alice. It was like seeing an owl spin it's head around but it was both more interesting and disturbing when Chesire did it now. With how skinner he was you could the way his bones moved underneath his flesh.

Alice found it more fascinating than disturbing but she wasn't looking forward to him doing it again any time soon.

"I use to, not anymore," Chesire said bluntly. "I haven't seen that mad man since he was imprisoned."

"Imprisoned?!" Alice almost yelled, "Whatever for? The hatter couldn't hurt a fly, let alone get a prison sentence!" 

Chesire shrugged, though in his current position it looked like his shoulders tried to sink to the ground for a moment. "The red queen for any reason she can find."

The red queen, Alice attempted to remember what the girl was like, she had only run into the girl once or twice not a lot of things she could say about the girl. She did remember her being rather young for a queen, she was only a few years older than Alice at the time and Alice was only twelve. Alice did also remember that she was nice, well nice for a spoiled royal preteen. Guess that was bound to happen if she was given so much wealth and power at a young age.

Still, Alice couldn't imagine her doing all of this. Even if the girl had lost her heart.

"The red queen seems to be doing a lot of horrible things as of late," Alice said more to herself than to Chesire. "Do you know if the hatter is still imprisoned? Or what happened to the Dormouse or the March hare? More importantly, can you tell me what's going on with the red queen?"

Chesire returned his body to normal, everything lining up with each other now. Then swirled around Alice a few times before just floating in front of her face. Holding up his paw, which looked much more like a human hand now that he lost so much weight. "No. And no, and yes." The said with each word lightly poking her with his paw.

Well, at least she could get some more information on the red queen. 

"Please tell me." Alice nearly begged.

"Hmm..." Cheshire let out as if he was debating whether or not to tell her, even his tail was curved into a question mark.

"Please," Alice said weakly.

After a moment Chesire seemed to relent, "I suppose if you won't hear it from me you will just hear it from someone else."

Alice sighed and smiled in relief.

Chesire rolled on his back, resting his head in his paws and his tail blissfully switching around. Closing his eyes he began to explain, "The original red queen was killed in battle not long after you left, the queen of hearts took her title and she's now called the red queen by everyone in wonderland."

Well, now that made more sense.

"Apparently you stole her heart and now she's heartless." Cheshire continued.

"I don't remember ever doing that," Alice commented.

Cheshire nodded, "I don't recall it either. Which makes me think that your not the one that stole her heart."

"What makes you so sure?" Alice asked, though she didn't expect any reasonable answer.

Chesire moved to roll onto his stomach resting his head on his paw, though his typical Chesire-ie grin faltered. "Well, Alice you were a child back then. And despite how it may seem now wonderland has never been a completely safe place. Though I and the others are mad we aren't careless enough to let a child wander around and get hurt or worse. So I doubt there was a lot of time when you were alone and I can bet that one ot us one would have remembered about going on a heist with you."

Huh. An oddly logical conclusion.

"Well if I didn't do it why does everyone think I did?"

"Because the Queen says you did."

"Well, why does she think I did it?"

"Hell if I know." Chesire spat out, "I'm not surprised the woman liked decapitation so much, she never uses her head and must not see much use in them."

"So.." Alice began, "The queen of hearts is the red queen, someone stole her heart and she blamed me for it, now she's going around killing people all willy nilly?"

"More or less," Chesire said finally floating down to the ground again. "Then again I don't know everything, haven't left these woods in a good while."

Alice raised an eyebrow, "Really now? I can't imagine you staying in the same place for very long."

"War and bloodshed changes things." He nearly scowled, "Leaving this place would be a death trap. I can't float anywhere without someone trying to murder me, imprison me, or just chase me for no reason."

Alive frowned, "What for?" Though Chesire caused mischief at times it was never warranting murder. Then again the hatter seemed to get imprisoned for no reason maybe Alice should expect to be killed on the spot as soon as a living card knight saw her.

"For existing," Chesire said scowling

"Existing? That's your crime? People just expected you not to exist?"

Cheshire nodded, "Seems to be so. As long as I was spotted by the queen of hearts she demanded I be beheaded, despite the fact I was only a head at the time without a body to remove it from."

Alice could barely believe it, well actually she could, it was wonderland. Unreasonable things happened all the time. 

"How did you escape?" Alice asked 

"I rolled away." 

Alice had to hold back a laugh, "Why didn't you just summoned the rest of your body back?"

"Then they would have been able to behead me."

Yeah, that was fair.

"Since then I have decided to remain here until the red queen forgets me or dies, whichever comes first." He said laying down on the ground.

Alice felt bad for him, though this forest was much better than all the other places she had come across, it seemed very isolated with little food. It must be hard.

_And it's all your fault._

"What a minute!" Alice yelled out, "Why are you still here? Did you follow me to wonderland? I came here to get rid of you!" Alice said to her thoughts.

Chesire rose up, "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh. Just my thoughts, they can't seem to mind their own business." Alice explained, only to realize how odd that sounded after she said it. She was about to explain,

But,

Chesire just nodded, "I hate it when that happens. Thoughts are always so nosy."

Alice smiled, right, she wasn't odd here. She was normal here,

_You belong here, Alice._

"Actually, Chess," Alice said after a moment, "What do you eat out here?" 

Chesire rolled on his back and looked up at Alice, "Some fish in the river and occasionally people."

"People!?"

"Why do you think I attacked you?"

Again fair enough.

"Surely though, the fish would be enough right?" Alice asked.

"For a bit, but there aren't enough fish to keep me alive solely on them," Chesire explained, "So every once in a while I enjoy one of the humans that pass through here."

Alice supposed she could understand though that didn't mean she approved. Yet, she imagined that he probably didn't want to do it, but wait,

Actually, if he was desperate enough to attack her, did that mean he had no other source of food? And that he was desperate enough to eat human flesh? Did that mean he was still hungry?

Alice couldn't help but feel bad for him.

That's also when Alice realized that see did hit Chesire with her knife sword.

"Oh!" She said realizing this, "I hit you didn't I? Are you hurt?"

Chester rolled his eyes, "Don't worry your pretty little head about it with the flimsy swordman ship you barely grazed me and it took very little magic to heal."

Alice sighed in relief, good to know she didn't leave too much damage. Turns out being a klutz had its benefits after all! 

Though that still meant that Chesire was nearly starving.

"Will you have enough food to last you for today?" Alice asked her voice dripping with concern.

Chester shook his head, "No more fish in the river and it's unlikely I'll find anyone else pass by today. I will have better luck tomorrow if anything."

Worry was beginning to build-up in Alice's chest. What if no one else came? Would Chesire starve to death? What happened if someone else came? Wouldn't be her fault for their death since Chesire didn't kill her? Though it was ridiculous to expect someone to die, but the guilt was getting bigger and bigger nonetheless.

Alice couldn't just expect Chesire to eat her though, she still had to sort out all of the red queen drama, eventually, give a proper apology to her mother and most importantly find the hatter! 

Alice was about to give up until she got an idea.

She could just let Chesire take a few bites out of her! It would hurt, but she would survive. And it would help him out and might save a few other Alices passing by in the forest.

"Chesire. You would like something to eat, correct?" Alice asked

Chesire looked up at her, "Would you like clean air to breathe?"

That was a yes then.

Alice rolled up one of her stockings, it was very easy considering how torn up they were, showing her bare leg.

Alice chuckled imagine her mother's reaction to this, she just might faint!

"Here." She said showing Chesire her leg.

"What?" He asked confusion blasted on his face.

"Take a few bites," Alice informed gently, "I don't want you to suffer any longer. And it's just a few bites. I want to help you."

Chesire gave her an odd look, Alice couldn't quite make out what type of expression it was, but as Chesire looked at her leg he licked his lips. And walked over. 

Cheshire walked up and placed his paws on her leg, and ran them up and down.

Alice had no idea how to react to this. She was that Chesire was just feeling how dainty her leg was, but Alice couldn't help but blush.

To one had ever really touched her but doctors and she was extremely drugged when they did. It was kinda nice, however, she couldn't help but to help a little self-conscious. 

Alice was sure she was decent or at least not ugly. Then again she had never got a second opinion about the matter, so who knows?

Then again, why was she even worried? Cheshire was just a cat about to munch on her leg, why would he care about her nice her legs looked?

Well, Chesire was still a man, even if he wasn't a human man. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by Chesire licking her leg.

Alice resisted the urge to shiver. Despite everything she had been through in wonderland these felt like the strangest experience she had here thus far.

To make matters worse it was invoking odd feelings inside her.

She had never been more thankful for Chesire to take a bite out of her leg, replacing any weird emotions with unbelievable pain.

Alice bit down on her bottom lip to muffle any screams, a few tears ran down her cheeks. It was painful, but she couldn't complain. She did pretty much ask for this.

It still hurt though.

Chesire took two more bites, savoring each one as Alice could feel his tongue brush against her. She was thankful it hurt too much for her to feel anything from it.

Chesire finally moved away, his teeth stained red along with the fur around his mouth. Licking his lips. "You make a lovely meal my dear."

Alice didn't quite know how to feel about this, she opened her mouth to thank him, but all that came out was blood. Guess she bit on her lip harder than she thought. 

"Oh my.." Chesire said floating up and wiping away any blood that came out. 

"Forgive me." Alice quickly apologized, "I-"

"Don't bloody apologize, no pun intended, I am the one that literally took a bite out of you." He said looking down at her leg, "Actually, here." He said picking up a few cut up discarded pieces of her dress and banged her leg.

"Thank you." She said, standing up.

"What now?" He asked going back to floating in the air.

"I suppose I should find my way out of these woods, what about you?" Alice asked

"What do you mean?"

"What will you do now?"

Chesire shrugged, "I suppose be with you until you leave the forest."

Alice smiled, she would enjoy some company. "I like that."

She said beginning to walk down the forest path again, Cheshire floating behind her.

((I know the spelling of Chesires name isn't consist, but it doesn't matter, I don't think wonderland relies on consistency.))


	5. Chapter V: Dutchess

Alice seemed to have forgotten that Cheshire had always been a bit of a mixed bag of treats.

He was not completely salty, not completely sweet, and sometimes he was a bit of both.

Granted no one was ever completely sweet or salty but usually someone leaned more towards salty or sweet. 

But it seemed like with Chesire someone just randomly scopped up a lot of different types of treats put them in a bag and shook it around.

It was had become more and more apparent as Alice walked with Cheshire. Sometimes he would be the sweetest thing, listening to her, complimenting her and telling her what to avoid while she was in the forest.

Then all of a sudden he be a little shit.

Tripping her, undoing her bun, suddenly making very passive aggressive comments about her and laughing at her when she got upset.

Alice knew it wasn't intentional or that Cheshire was meaning mean for the sake of it. It was just the way he was. He didn't mean any harm, he probably just didn't think of it that way.

That was the thing about wonderland.

Even though there were a few rotten apples, no one was ever purposely malicious. Yes, sometimes they were rude, mean or even just annoying but it was just the way they were. Which couldn't be helped, no matter that they did.

That seemed to change though. Nearly everyone she met this far seemed bitter, fearful, or outright distrustful. With good reason, but still, it didn't make the change any less heart wrenching.

Despite Cheshire being a mild annoyance, he stayed by her side and helped out. Informing her when she was just walking in circles, telling her when certain berries were poisonous or venomous, and suggesting she take breaks whenever she began to walk funny.

Yeah, after walking around for awhile she quickly realized that prehaps letting Cheshire take a few bites out of her leg was not the best idea. Even though the pain eventually wore off and she could no longer feel it, infact she couldn't feel her leg at all.

Oh well, at least her feet were feeling better despite the occasional cuts from the few sharp rocks on the ground.

As they walked Cheshire looked up, "Seems that night is upon us.."

Alice looked up but with the branches blocking so much of the sky, it looked no difference from when she first arrived.

"You can tell?" Alice asked more impressed than anything.

Cheshire nodded, "Indeed, you learn when you lived here for so long."

Alice felt her heart sank for him, was the Red Queen so horribly that it warranted staying in these woods for years? She really did need to fix this mess!

However, it being night made a good amount of sense.

She was very tired. Especially with all the times she had been running today, and all the injuries she's endured. But, she couldn't just sleep on the side of the road, could she?

It wasn't proper but wonderlandians didn't care about such things. Though it wasn't very safe, even if Cheshire would act as some type of guard....cat? Whatever. Even if she had him on her side she couldn't be completely sure something wouldn't attack her.

Yes she had her knife sword, but a weapon was useless if you couldn't use it. Unless Alice could sleep fight, which-

Actually that probably was possible in wonderland.

She shouldn't count on that though.

Alice's solution was to simply walk until she found shelter or simply passed out from exhaustion.

It seemed like a bright idea at the time, but with how hard it was to simply walk in wonderland especially with a wounded foot, she ended up not only slowing down but even just ended up walking in place.

It was quite embarrassing, especially when Cheshire called her out on it. 

Alice quickened her pace, but it was clear she was struggling.

"Alice," Cheshire spoke up, "Perhaps you should rest and carry on your journey tomorrow."

Alice shook her head, "Oh no no no, I'm fine." She reassured, "Besides there is no where to-" Alice quickly spotted a nearby manor not too far off in the distance, quickly she realized it was the Duchesses house! "The Duchess! We can stay with her!"

Cheshire's face turned into horror as he saw the Duchesses house, but before she could saw anything Alice used her small amount of energy that remained and ran to the cottage.

"Alice wait!" Cheshire called out, but was given no touch but to follow.

Alice paid little mind to his words, her body screaming for a nice warm bed drowned him out. She managed to make her way to the Duchesses manor, though she was stumbling by the time she got to the door. Dragging her feet, she knocked on the door.

"Oh no.." Cheshire said finally approaching the front of the manor and vanishing as the door opened.

Alice was rather confused by this action but didn't have time to think on it as the Duchess opened the door.

Honestly she was shocked by what she saw, the Duchess looked that same! Well, not exactly, she was older and her clothed looked rougher but practically the same! With how diffierent everything looked in wonderland, she was expecting the Duchess to have half her face melted off or something. But no! She was the same old Duchess!

"Duchess!" Alice happily exclaimed, squatting down and giving her a hug. Her and the Duchess weren't exactly close, but she would welcome a familiar face any time. 

Duchess seemed a bit confused, but pulling her spectacles closer she realized who it was, "Alice? The Alice?"

Alice pulled away and smiled, "Yup! It's me! I'm back!" She exclaimed happily.

"Oh! It's good to see you, you dear thing! Come in! Come in!" She said taking Alice's hand and pulling Alice inside. 

Alice had to lean down due the height difference but didn't complain, the Duchess was a very pleasant woman as long as she wasn't around any pepper.

As Alice entered the manor she quickly realized, that it was not only dirty but in need of many repairs. The entire place was covered in dust, the walls spotted a few stains, the windows were cracked, the furniture seemed to be barley standing, and even though she wasn't even that close to the kitchen she could tell it was a mess.

"Has your maid been around often?" Alice asked as she took in her surroundings. 

Duchess looked at her with a sad smile, "Not since the queen took her, I don't ever see her anymore."

Again Alice's heart sank a little. 

The queen was ruining so many peoples lives, and Alice was supposedly what caused all this tragedy. Well, not really, still now she was wishing mote than ever that she stayed in Wonderland. Things might have changed or at least not be this bad.

"Either way!" Duchess exclaimed happily as she sat Alice down on her couch, "It's so nice to see you! What brought you back to wonderland?"

"The ground." Alice replied, though now that she thought about it maybe she should say the sky since that is where she came out from when she entered wonderland. "Though I suppose it was also the sky as well, it's kinda hard to tell actually." 

Again Alice realized how odd that might sound and was going to cover it up or pass it off as a joke, but the Duchess didn't seem at all put off by anything she said.

"Common mistake," Duchess informed with a smile before sitting on the arm chair not far off, "Reminds me when I first entered wonderland, I jumped so high in the air that I ended up popping out of the ground. Ah, those were quite the days."

Alice couldn't help but smile back, right, nothing was odd here. Not even her.

"Did you ever leave wonderland?" Alice asked curiously.

The Duchess nodded, "Once. I was drinking tea one morning and after I had a few cups a door appeared."

Alice frowned, "A door?"

Duchess nodded again, "Yes. I opened it and on the other side was the other side! I took a few steps in to get a better look, then the door slammed behind me and vanished!"

Huh, sounds similar to how all the times Alice left when she was younger.

"How did you get back?" She asked hesitantly lieing back on the couch, making her it wouldn't collapse or anything.

"Oh. I jumped off a cliff." The Duchess informed.

Alice sat straight up at that, "You jumped off a cliff!? Do you hurt yourself?!"

And the better question of how she didn't freakin' die, but to each their own.

"Oh goodness no, I was fine." The Duchess reassured her with a soft laugh, "I didn't want to return back to the other side, so I quickly tried to figure out how to get back to wonderland. I thought I would try to go back the same way I got in there in the first place, so I found a cliff and attempted to jump as high as I could. It didn't work out thst exact way though.."

Alice despite being on the verge of passing out was deeply interested, "What happened instead?" 

"Well, it turns that at the bottom of the cliff there must have some ocean or a lake as I landed in some water and nearly sunk to the bottom. However when I swam back to the surface I found myself on the beach of the Endless Sea over by the Queens castle. Though at the time it wasn't built yet."

Alice was going to ask more questions, but when she opened her mouth all that came out was a yawn. 

"Oh you poor dear you must be exhausted." The Duchess said getting up and patting her knee. "Go on and lay down, you need your rest."

Alice felt kinda guilty for occupying this women's home and was considering finding somewhere else to rest, but she was too tired to even move right now.

"Well if you insist.." She said laying herself down on the couch, her eyelids seeming ridiculously heavy. "Thank you so much."

"You're very welcome my dear." The Duchess said, she walked off and came back as soon as Alice was asleep.

She held a butcher's knife in her hand with a wicked smile on her face, she raised the knife over her and lunged it down at Alice.


	6. Chapter VI: One Drop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know short chapter but I tried

Before the knife could even reach Alice, Duchess was thrown to the ground and the knife was knocked out of her hand sliding across to the other side of the room.

"Don't you dare touch her." A voice growled, placing a hairy hand on her mouth.

After a few moments her attacker came into focus, slowly she realized it was none other than the Cheshire cat.

Easily she pushed him off of her, "You..you...damn cat!" She hissed

"Will you hush?" He whispered yelled at her, "You'll wake her." He said looking over at Alice still asleep on the couch.

Duchess after getting back on her feet, had to cover her mouth to stop a giggle. 

"And pray tell, what do you find so funny?" Cheshire nearly growled.

Duchess finally managed to surpess her laughter, "It's just so hilarious. An ugly cat like yourself in love with a such a pretty girl? It's just a laugh to think to you have a chance."

Cheshires ears went back in frustration, and after a moment he sighed, "I don't know what you think is happening, but I assure you I have no romantic feelings for Alice."

Duchess gave a skeptical look, "Right, because so many people save someone out of friendship..."

Cheshire rolled his eyes, "I've known her when she was just a child," he floated off, hovering over Alice.

Duchess scoffed, "Well whatever, no matter what your reason, you still caused me to miss my lunch." Her voice suddenly got very soft, "You know as well as I do how desperately we need food here. Animals never pass her, plants rarely grow, and you know damn well why I can't go to any markets. I will be killed on sight if I step out of this forest!"

"I know..." He said simply, "But I still cannot let you kill her..."

Duchess slowly looked over the girl before her gaze landing on her leg, "Looks like you already took a bite out of her."

Cheshire didn't look at her, keeping his gaze on Alice. "Because she offered."

Duchesses eyes widened, "She...offered?"

Cheshire nodded, "After I told her about how hard food comes across here, she felt bad and offered me a bite or two."

Duchess stayed silent for a long time before letting out a long frustrated sigh, "Damn girl." She mumbled before sitting down on a nearby chair, "Oh....now I can't kill her."

Cheshire made a sound that was a mix of a laugh and a sound of agreement, "I'm almost certain, if I asked for her entire leg, she would have given it to me."

Duchesses entire face had softened, and slowly walked into the kitchen again.

Cheshire was confused and for a brief moment worried if she was going to come back with an even bigger knife, but instead, the Duchess came back with a small vile in her hands this time.

After making her toward Alice, she opened the vile and put a few drops of the liquid on her hand then placed it on Alice's leg wound.

In a matter of seconds the wound has healed.

Cheshire blinked a few times, "Did you-"

"Yes."

"You have-"

"Yes."

"And you have-"

"Yes."

"Then why!?" Cheshire called out on frustration.

"Because," Duchess said softly, "I don't know if this girl is unbelievably kind or just stupid, but...." She took a long sigh, "We don't have many good things in wonderland and....well....if this girl can...if she's willing to...then she must-"

Cheshire stopped the Duchesses stuttering, by lifting up his paw, seeming to understand what she meant.

Duchess sat down and sighed once again, "It's so hard to kill people because then you realize their people, because then you realize you can't kill people, so you have to treat them like their not people so then you can kill people."

Cheshire stayed silent for awhile, before speaking again, didn't pay any mind to her words, simply looking down at the sleeping Alice. He was just glad the she was safe.


	7. Chapter VII: For a meal

Alice woke.

She looked around her eyes still groggy with sleep, for a second she wondered where she was.

It sure didn't look like her room, nor her mothers living area.

After her eyes adjusted she remembered where she was, oh right the Duchesses house.

Honestly sometimes it was hard to really believe she was back in Wonderland, it felt like any moment she could just open her eyes and it would all be gone.

Everything looked real, everything feels real, smells real and deep down in her bones, yet still she felt like it could vanish in a blink of an eye.

Maybe she really was mad, but everyone was mad here. So she must be normal, she could only be insane here if she were sane.

Alice slowly rose off the couch, and surprised by the lack of pain in her leg. She moved so slowly waiting to feel the sharp stabbing pain, but it wasn't there.

Looking down she saw Cheshires bandages were no longer there and no the wound was no longer there as well. 

But how?

Alice tried to remember if wounds usually healed this fast in Wonderland, she never really got majorly injured in Wonderland to really tell.

Alice knew she should question it, but knew it would be in vain. The answer will eventually present itself, hopefully anyway. 

She looked around, the Duchess had fallen asleep in her armchair, but still no sign of the Cheshire. Though he could be invisible.

Alice quietly walked over to the window, she couldn't quite tell the time of day, though she assumed it was at least morning. And there was still no sign of Cheshire.

Why didn't he come with her into the Duchesses Manor? She didn't seem violent, maybe he was worries anyway?

As he said, war and bloodshed tends to change things, even how people think.

Alice continued to look around, slowly making her way to the kitchen. Well, at least she hoped it was a kitchen. She was fairly hungry.

After finding a door, a rather small door, a Duchess size door. There was another larger door closer to Alice's size, though it was locked.

Hesitantly Alice squatted down and opened it, she couldn't quite make out everything in there but she spotted tile floor. Which frankly was enough for her.

Slowly she works her way through the door, even though she was pretty thin she was still a grown woman, and her hips were definitely wider than the child size door.

After wiggling, kicking and a lot of discomfort she popped through. 

Literally.

You could hear a pop as she came stumbling threw the door.

And then falling flat on her face.

With a groan she sat up and looked at first intentionally confused, why in the world would someone keep a room full of dirty dishes and pots. That was just unsanitary!

After standing up it finally occurred to her, this was the kitchen. It was just buried underneath all the mountains of plates, bowls, pots and pans. 

Seems Duchess hadn't bothered cleaning at all since her maid left, then again she was fairly old, it must have been difficult for her to keep such a big house clean.

Alice walked around and it became more and more how filthy the place was, their were bones laying on the ground and stuff that at one point must have been food, not to mention the two cockroaches doing the waltz on one of the nearby serving trays.

Alice had never been a neat freak, far from it, as a child she played in the mud, caught worms and bugs, in the asylum she had to witness other gross events.

Now she couldn't name one particular occasion but she knew she been through serval instances of other more mentally ill patients, vomiting or spoiling themselves. And the substances would often stick around for days without being cleaned up.

And Alice beared through it.

Yet this kitchen made her want to run to the hills and vomit Wonderland a new river. It was so disgusting the lot of it.

And Alice couldn't bear standing in it or anyone else being in here for that matter.

So she did the only thing she could do, clean.

Alice was no maid and didn't know how to properly clean everything, but any improvement would be welcomed here.

First get rid of the cockroaches, Alice walked over to the plate they were dancing on. 

"Excuse me?" She called out softly, the cockroaches turned to her with mild annoyance, "I'm so sorry to bother you but would you mind taking your dancing outside, it's very lovely but I need to clean up. I can even bring the plate outside if that would help."

The cockroaches talked to each other in there high pitched voices, Alice only able to pick up a few words here and there.

They seemed to come to an agreement and nodded at Alice though didn't step for their plate, Alice quickly understood picking the plate up and carrying it out through the back door.

She set the plate on the ground letting the cockroaches dance as freely as they wanted outside, she repeated the process a few more till in total their were six plates outside with dancing cockroaches on all of them.

Next was clearing up the floor, Alice picked up the biggest pot she could find then pick up, what Alice nicknamed the remains of food and place it into said pot.

It didn't take long for it to fill up, and even though picking up all the food remains just barley left a dent in the entire mess.

She placed the pot of food corpses outside, leaving it for the dancing cockroaches, considering nothing else would even spare the stuff a glance.

Next was to get the smaller amount of dishes off the floor, and add them to the mountains on the counters which may or may have not caused a few to fall and shatter.

Alice worked had picking up glass shards that made or made have not fallen because of her. Then was to scrub the filthy floors, the Duchesses sink didn't work so she had to get a bucket and get water from the river to properly clean the floors.

And by the time the floors were at least somewhat clean, she had already went back to fetch water nearly seven times.

Now one could manage to properly walk around as long as you looked up every once and awhile to make sure no plates would fall on you.

Alice went to get another bucket of water this time to actually wash some dishes. Though her weak arms gave out of exhaustion after she was halfway back. Backing her go back and this time making sure not to fill her bucket as much.

Thats when she began on the dishes, after sloppily watching some dishes a smile appeared above her.

"What are you doing?" It asked and Alice recognized the voice immediately, Cheshire.

Alice continued washing waiting until his ears at least appeared so that way he could hear what she said.

After a few moments, enough of Cheshire appeared and Alice spoke,

"I am cleaning the Duchesses kitchen." She stated simply, "It was in such awful condition, so I am trying to make it less awful."

Cheshire tilted his head, odd how he could do that without a neck. Alice felt if she tried that her entire head would roll instead of tilt slightly.

"You don't have to help that woman, it's her fault for being so lazy." Cheshire informed.

Alice nodded, "I know I don't have to, but I want to. Besides she's so old, even if she wanted to clean I bet she would have a lot of trouble. If I were her, I would be grateful to have a helping hand. Especially if my house was this flithy."

Cheshire didn't speak for a long time, analyzing Alice for a long time before speaking, "Alice if everyone was as sympathetic as you Wonderland would be filled with blondes frantically running around trying to help everyone."

Alice giggled, "Would that be such a bad thing?"

Cheshire gave no response.

While time never really crossed her mind throughout all of it, by the time the mountains of plates became just large piles. Alice's muscles ached with pain as though she had been at for several hours.

Her stomach was the worse as her stomachs hungry aches were now stabbing pains. Alice finally decided to take a break and see if their was any food in the kitchen she could actually eat.

As she looked around she could hear Cheshire chuckle.

"I don't think you will find any food here to your likeing unless you prefer a human dish." He chuckled again.

Alice at first was confused by his words, a human dish? Like a dish meant for humans?

It took Alice longer than she admit to firgure what he was referencing, but she eventually caught on.

"Oh." She finally let out, not mad, not frightened, simply disappointed, "The Duchess is a cannibal isn't she?"

"So you finally get it." Cheshire said his voice a mix of annoyance and regret, "That's why she didn't want you to come here, eating human flesh isn't right."

"Cheshire you eat human flesh." Alice pointed out.

He grumbled, "I get a free past. I'm not a human myself."

"Well Cheshire you do realize that she probably doesn't want to right?" Alice asked finally giving up her search for food, all the found was some stale bread which she didn't have much of a stomach for, "You said yourself that resources are scarce, she's probably just doing what she had to do to survive."

Cheshire rolled his eyes, "Still."

Alice giggled and walked outside, "You know you are sounding like quite the hypocrite right now."

Huh, all her dancing cockroaches were gone it was just the plates and her pot full of food remains.

Cheshire or well Cheshires head followed, after her, "What? You can't say you approve of what that woman does."

"Never said I approve of it, but I do understand it-" Alice stopped in place unable to unsee what was right in front of her, "Is that a flying pig nose?"

Wonderland would never cease to surprise her, or maybe the better term was confuse her. Was there a difference at this point?

Though flying in the hair was sure enough a big pig nose with wings attached to it, just flying around.

Cheshire followed her gaze, "Oh. It's just a pig pigscout."

"A what?" Alice asked.

"No not a 'what', those went extinct long ago. A pigscout. See when the Red Queen slaughtered the Animal Village, a few of the weaker animals such as pigs and mice paid a magician to keep at least one part of them alive. And for the pigs it was their nose." Cheshire explained, "We often find a few around here, though often their too high to catch."

Alice thought for a moment, "So their are body parts of animals with wings flying around?"

"Their use to be, the Queen got the majority of them though. It's mainly just pigscouts now and they are difficult to catch." Cheshires head jerked for a second before Cheshire realized he had to paws or anything below his head to pounce with.

Alice giggled a little at his displeasure, but her focus went back to the pigscout. It was food, though that raised the question of how she would get it.

Admittedly she didn't like the idea of killing something then eating it, but considering it was jusy a nose and most likely nonsentient Alice could live with herself.

However she needed to figure out how to catch it, there was no way she could jump up that high, climbing on the house and then pouncing on it might work but knowing Alice she would just break something.

Maybe if she had a bow and arrow she could shoot it down, but even Alice was archer she had no idea how to make a bow and arrow, so unless the Duchess just kept one around she doubted that was an option.

Alright she was getting ahead of herself, she needed to look around and see what was lying around that she could use.

"Oh right." Alice called out, "Cheshire where did I put my sword knife?"

Cheshire raised an eyebrow at her.

"The weapon I had." Alice explained.

"Oh." Cheshire said in realization, "You dropped it before running off to the Duchess."

Oh great. Well she have to search the woods for that and hope that no one or anything stole it. 

With a sigh Alice began her search going to the woods and searching the ground for it. Making sure that she kept the Duchesses house in sight just to keep her from getting lost.

Luck had been on her side as she found her knife sword underneath a small pile of some mud, at least she hoped it was mud. Though honestly all the dirt and mud in this forest felt like wet sand, instead of any type of ground.

After finding it Alice swiped off the dirt, in the shadows she noticed something in the shadows. Slowly she walked closer to it, "Cheshire....is that a shed?"

He turned his head to where she was looking, "Oh. It's just an old shed that use to belong to some farmer."

"Use to? Their not here anymore?" Alice asked.

Cheshire shook his head, "They either abandoned it or they were killed."

"Hmm..." Alice hummed, "Did you ever meet them?" She asked walking closer to the shed.

Cheshire again shook his head.

Alice frowned, "Then how do you know their a farmer?"

"I took shelter in that shed quite a few times when it rained, and it's completely filled with farming tools. So unless someone really likes farming equipment, it's most likely a farmer." Cheshire explained.

Farming tools? It didn't sound like much but it was worth taking a look Alice supposed.

Alice had her way to the shed and as she got closer to it, it became more obvious that it most likely was abandoned or the owner hadn't bothered to care for it in some time.

Hesitantly she opened the door, and poke her head in. It was fairly dark, it was hard to make out everything. But what she did see didn't quite look like farming tools.

There was something that she supposed could be some type of pitchfork but it's ends were twisted around in a weird way. There were a few random sticks that must have been taller than her, and a spikey ball that looked more like a weapon than a farming tool.

Hesitantly she walked in.

"These are farming tools?" Alice asked.

"What else would they be?" Cheshire asked from the outside.

Alice wanted to respond with, weapons or toture devices, but didn't. Though this made her very curious to see how farming actually worked in Wonderland.

She carefully moved things around, praying she wouldn't cut herself on anything in here. She found a few more things though nothing that could really help in taking down a flying pig nose.

One was a rectangular wooden base with a metal spiked spring, which would clearly kill any small animal that walked into it. 

There were a few bags of seed, which did help Cheshires farmer theory. There was a round circular object though it was far too heavy for Alice to pick up so she had no idea what it's function was, there was also something that seemed to resemble a farming tool she actually recognized.

It had been one of the grass cuters that their gardener used, granted ten times bigger than she ones she had seen.

Again nothing that could be used to catch a flying pig nose, Alice sighed and turned to walk out. 

And with her first step, her foot landed on some circular object causing to roll and her foot to roll with it then launching off of it into the air causing the rest of her body to attempt to follow it then landing on the ground altogether.

Ouch.

Alice groaned then sat up, thankful one of the tools didn't sphere through her head or chop it off all together.

Ha! Beheaded before she even got to the Queen of Hearts, imagine that.

"Are you alright in there?" Cheshire asked.

"No. I'm Alice." She responded looking around the shed to see what she tripped on, and she didn't know if she was amazed or confused about what she saw.

But for now lets go with both. 

Both is good.

It looked like a......revolver? Alice didn't quite know gun terms very well, she only ever saw the few guns her father owned back when she was little.

Whatever it was it looked similar, though a lot bigger, probably bigger than her hand.

Hesitantly she picked it up.

Despite it being so large, it was surprisingly light.

Alice looked over it. 

It sure looked like a revolver or some kind of gun, though the uh, barrel? The thingy that held the bullets were unusually large. She gentle removed it and looked inside.

It was full of...seeds?

Unless it was Wonderlands version of bullets they looked like oversized seeds. 

Whatever it was it would work.

Alice stood up and walked outside the shed, with the speed gun in hand.

Cheshire tilted his head at seeing her carry the thing, "What have got there?" 

"Not sure, but I am certain it will be useful never the less." Alice said beginning a light jog back to the Duchesses house.

"That sounds like an oxymoron." Cheshire mumbled but following Alice nevertheless.

Alice quickly located the pigscout and aimed the seed gun at, before realizing she didn't know how to use it.

Que Alice fumbling with the device for a good half an hour or so, accidentally shooting a few random objects then shooting a few objects on purpose.

Finally she aimed at the pigscout again, the first three shots she missed and the fourth one she actually hit the thing, but instead of knocking it down it let out an annoyed...uh...sound then flew to the other side of the house.

Cheshire laughed, "And you thought that would work!"

Alice puffed her cheeks out in frustration, and her stomach growled at her. She resisted the urge to scream at Cheshire, and took a deep breath.

She couldn't get angry at him, pissing Cheshire off was never a good idea no matter who you were. Even if it wasn't immediately he will get you back and its never pleasant.

Alice after calming herself down, spoke to Cheshire, "And what would you think would work Chess?"

Cheshires head rolled, what he was trying to do Alice had no idea, but his grin widened. "What is a noses weakness? Such a riddle..."

Alice thought for a moment.

What would bother a nose? Flowers? Those sometimes made her sneeze but there weren't any around, besides Alice's last encounter with flowers in wonderland wasn't very pleasant. Dust? That could work but she had no idea how she would shoot it at the nose. Maybe a feather? No, that was just silly.

Finally it clicked.

Pepper! It was perfect! And the Duchess despite hating the stuff, always had some around thanks to her maid. Though her maid wasn't here anymore there must be some left. 

Anyway it wouldn't hurt to look.

Alice already checked the kitchen, she looked around in the hallways and found nothing. She tried to look upstairs but a lot of the stairs ended up leading nowhere or back to where she was. She searched finally underneath the floorboards, and it was only then that she found the hidden pepper stash.

It was quite a lot of pepper, you could fill an entire pantry with it.

She tried to fill the seed gun, barrel seed holder thingy and failed the first two things only succeeded in getting pepper all over herself.

She got the pepper in eventually and then hunted down the pigscout herself.

The first time she missed, the the second time she made sure the thing was properly loaded then ended up shooting herself in the face causing her to go into a sneezing fit and Cheshire nearly rolled away laughing.

Finally after she finished sneezing and her eyes stopped watering she got the pigscout, it seemed to pounce around after getting shot the first time.

Alice shot it a few more times with pepper each time it pounced around and let out a few more odd noises, finally after the fifth shot the thing let out a loud screech then collasped to the ground.

A rather anticlimactic battle in her opinion.

"You actually did it!" Cheshire called out in an almost teasing tone.

Alice was just so glad she had something to eat, she just gave him a smile and rushed over and picked the thing up.

Alice didn't quite know how to cook it, though she had no idea how to really cook anything, so she settled for getting a pot filled of water and boiling it.

Well, first she had to figure out how to work the stove first. Which took awhile no thank to Cheshires brilliant advice.

When she finally got the stove started she began to boil the water, and dropped the pigscout in.

Alice wasn't sure how long she should cook it for, so settled for taking it out when it was brown.

After taking it out, she placed it on one of the plates she cleaned, she then attempted to cut it. She soon realized that she couldn't eat the wings so cut those off and set them aside then just focused the nose part.

She took a few bites, it wasn't the best thing she tasted but after what she went through to get it she enjoyed it anyway.

She went outside to eat it, giving Cheshire a few pieces tossing them and letting him catch it with his mouth.

She finished about half of it before stopping.

Cheshire noticed that she stopped, "If your not going to eat the rest of it, I will gladly finish it for you."

Alice shook her head, "No I just thought that I better save some for the Duchess."

Cheshire growled, "Why waste such precious food on her?"

Alice smiled, "She deserves a nice meal as much as you do Cheshire. Besides she was willing to open her home to me, so she can't be that bad." She said walking into the Duchesses house.

Cheshire growled again, "Because she wanted to eat you, you stupid girl."

He followed her in though, wanting to keep track of her.

Though her kindness was refreshing. Even when she was young, her kindness had always left a welcomed imprint on Wonderland.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter drags on a lot, it wasn't mean to be this long but when writing this ideas tend to pile up on eachother.


	8. Chapter XIII: What's ever the matter Hatter?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick warning, I know violence is a big part of this story but this gets pretty extreme.

Alice shared the rest of her pigscout with the Duchess, which she ate rather grumpily.

She imagined it was probably the pepper on her dress from before.

Actually why did the Duchess keep the pepper around if it made her so grumpy? Why not jusy throw it out?

Oh well, that was a question for another day.

After the Duchess finished the rest of it she looked over Alice, "You'll be leavin' soon won't ya?"

Alice didn't respond immediately, thinking about it. She supposed she could have stayed, cooking and cleaning for the Duchess. Helping people like her that passed by here. It wouldn't be so bad at all.

She couldn't do it though.

She needed to sort out the issues with the Queen and hopefully get Wonderland back on track to being like it was before. Or at least a lot less murderer-ie.

Besides she didn't want to bother the Duchess.

Finally, Alice nodded, "Yes. I will."

The Duchess grumbled something, before speaking properly, "Well you'll need better travel gear?"

Alice frowned, "What's wrong with the gear I have?"

"Well you don't have any shoes first of all." The Duchess pointed out, "Or any bags to carry things, or food or even a coat."

Alices eyes widened in realization, oh. She supposed all those things would be useful wouldn't they?

"Oh. Where shall I get travel gear then? Is there a nearby town where I can buy some?" Alice asked but quickly realized she didn't have money.

The Duchess rolled her eyes, "Stupid girl! I'll give you some!"

"Oh." Alice said slightly in awe, "Well thank you."

Odd to be offered kindness so aggressively.

The Duchess scuffled over into the hallway opening a closet and giving or well, more like throwing Alice a pair of shoes, a bag and a coat.

She put her knife sword in the bag, though it poked out a little. As well as the seed gun, and a few of the things of pepper.

The coat was too big for her, it was probably made for a man or a very tall woman. Still, it looked nice and comfy, even had an odd but nice smell to it. Though it was oddly thick.

The shoes the Duchess gave were also too big, but they were a nice pair of boots. They were a bright shade of purple with even brighter green laces, the inside was padded and fuzzy. They were comfortable beyond belief.

"I can't thank you enough for this." Alice said while being walked over, shoved, to the door.

"Yes..yes now go!" The Duchess said and as soon as Alice was out the door she slammed it shut.

"Um...goodbye then?" She said unsure in a soft voice before beginning to walk away, "And she was so nice.."

"What did you expect?" A familar slurry voice said. 

Alice looked up to see Cheshire appearing above her, with his full body this time. Well, most of it.

He had his neck, his torso, and his tail, but no legs.

"I thought that she would at least tell me goodbye." Alice admitted as she began walking.

Cheshire followed behind her, floating, "Well I suppose I will say goodbye when we part."

That made Alice smile, "Thank you chess."

The two walked, or well, one walked and the other one floated as they passed through the forest.

Alice knew that they would part as soom as Alice had left the forest, it wasn't unexpected, but Alice couldn't help but still feel a little sad.

Maybe an hour or two had passed when they reached the end of the woods, where the sun was visibly and the black trees ended.

At the edge, Alice turned to Cheshire, "I suppose its time to say goodbye." Her voice was sad but she smiled.

"I suppose it is." Cheshire said, nothing about his expression or tone changed, "Goodbye Alice."

Slowly he began to vanish.

"Goodbye Chess." She petted his head before it disappeared and with a sigh, she turned around and continued to walk.

She would meet him again. Surely. This goodbye wasn't forever.

She walked down the path. Honestly she had gotten so use to the dark forest that everything seemed to ridiculously bright.

Even though, in reality, it wasn't.

The grass seemed dried out, more yellow than green, and any bushes or trees looked the same.

One had to wonder if even nature itself had gotten depressed by all the blooshed.

As Alice continued down the path she came across an all too familiar garden.

Oh no.

Oh heavens no.

Alice immediately turned around and tried to take a different path.

Look, Tulgey woods full of shallow graves and bloodworms was fine, the ruined village of animals was fine, the creepy black forest was fine, her friends becoming cannibals was fine.

All things she could deal with.

However she would rather dive head first into the mouth of the bandersnatch than ever step into that garden again.

Oh back when she was little she hated that place.

The flowers and plants mocked her constantly to no end, would not shut about about how beautiful they were and simply the SMELL of the place.

All the roses and daises made the entire place smell so sweet that it made her head hurt.

She avoided the place like the plague as a child, if you wanted her to go there you would have to drag her while she was kicking and screaming.

Alice went down several different paths, even down non paths, anything to avoid having to go through but at last, it all just lead her back to the start of the garden.

She looked around to see if she could walked around it, which was a no. She considered seeing if she could somehow hop over it, but there was no way to guarantee that she wouldn't get hurt or worse. Going under it would have been difficult but Alice was willing to try but she just ended up pissing off a worm and ended up refilling the hole.

So that meant there was only one option.

She had to go through.

Alice took the deepest breath she had ever taken. 

Surely, she could do this.

Hopefully with any luck all the bad things happening in wonderland had changed them or maybe just killed them.

Who knows? But anyway Alice mentally prepared herself as much as she could before opening the gardens gates.

The metal gate creaked as Alice pushed it open, hesitantly Alice walked in.

And just like nearly everything else in Wonderland, it was very different from how she remembered.

Though she wasn't really that bothered by it this time, she only visited the garden once or twice when she was young and they hadn't been pleasant by a long shot. So she couldn't bring herself to care.

The garden, well was still a garden, except every plant and flower was wlited, dead or on the verge of it.

It was foggy, damp and overall looked abandoned.

Seeing the place in such a literally dampened state made Alice more comfortable. Maybe she could get threw without being harrassed by talking roses.

She walked through, she had relaxed some but she was still cautious. There was no guarantee that everything here was dead.

Alice pulled out her knife sword as she walked, passed through the corpses of shrubbery and other things of the like.

Honestly Alice began to feel at ease, she was already half way through the garden without any trouble.

It was then she passed a few familiar flower corpses on the ground.

The main flowers that had been her tormentors.

They were always the worse out of the bunch. The two times she came to the garden when she was young they had screamed at her, tripped her, even ripped her dress with their thorns.

Oh they were terrible!

And throughout all of it the crude nickname they gave her was, 'Weed'

Looking at them on the ground now, their wlited petals, their stems wrinkly, and leaves full of holes.

She couldn't help but laugh, "Whose the weed now?"

Immediately she regretted her words.

Suddenly the flowers shook, and a few rose up.

"What did you say?" One of them hissed.

Oh no.

Oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no!

Alice quickly began to walk away but her attempts proved to be futile as more of the wilted flowers began to rise blocking her path.

Oh she just had to open her fat mouth didn't she!?

"Oh look! The weed is all grown up!" A yellow rose hissed at her.

"Ugh! And I say! Time was not been nice to her!" A blue one hissed, "She's gotten more ugly! Someone should have put her out of her misery already!"

Alice gulped, "Look. If I could just-"

"Quiet you!" The red rose hissed, "Can't believe how much worse you've gotten! Skinner than a twig with hair that makes dried grass look good."

Alice was expecting these remarks to hurt her but, honestly they didn't. At least not very much.

It might sound cruel to say but it was hard to take serious offense to someone insulting you when they looked a thousand times worse.

The long list of insults went on,

"Oh! And such horrid skin! Wallpaper has looked better!"

"And her little chest! No wonder no men are interested in her!"

"She's gotten so tall too! Outright overgrown! A hideous giant weed!"

"Her face! It's so plain! Makes dry toast look appetizing!"

As they went on, Alice wondered more and more what she had been afraid of. Honestly their insults seemed to petty and childish, she just couldn't seem to care.

They all went on, but Alice now more bored than anything spoke up, 

"Um, excuse me?" She said her soft calm voice seeming to ease the constant insults, "May I please get through?"

"Oh?" The red rose hissed, "And why should we do that? You called us weeds!"

Alice sighed, did they forget how they gave her insult upon insult just a moment ago?

"Yes. I know." Alice said simply, feeling like she was talking to a slow child, "And that was wrong. I would like to apologize." Alice did a curtsy, "I am terribly sorry for insultingly you. I promise I did not mean it in the slightest."

All the roses seem to freeze all glaring at Alice, almost as if they were waiting for Alice to take back what she said or suddenly change her mind.

But, nothing of the sort happened.

Alice simply rose up from her curtsy, waiting for them to respond.

It all seemed to accrue to them that this was not the same Alice they had tormented. That this Alice has grown and was no longer affected by their taunts.

"Fine!" The red rose hissed, "Leave weed!"

The roses shuffled clearing the path.

"Thank you." Alice said simply beginning to walk away.

And that should have been all of it?

Right?

That should have been all of it.

Until one of the roses spoke up.

"Bet that stupid hatter of hers has gone even more downhill!"

That enlightened a fury in Alice of the like which she had never been familiar with.

Instantly Alice turned around, walking back other to the roses, "Excuse you?" Alice said, her voice had been raised some though she wasn't quite yelling.

"Whaaat?" A yellow rose barked, "We all know your little hatter has been reduced to a nothing but a filthy common criminal!"

"Yeah!" A purple one hissed, "Pure trash is all he is!"

"Why I never!" Alice exclaimed, "Hatter is the most amazing man I have ever met! You ugly wilting wankers are lucky to even know him!"

"You overgrown brat!" The red rose hissed, "You of all people should know that the hatter is a lowly criminal!"

"Criminal or not, I have faith in the hatter!" Alice said, "And I can guarantee he is still at least a thousand times better than you lowly weeds!"

"You little!" A blue rose hissed, "Just who do you think you are!?"

Instantly one of them slithered one of their thorn filled vines toward her, "You filthy!-"

It's words were interrupted by its own scream of pain.

Alice had taken her knife sword and with one swing had cut off the vine, they all seemed shocked by this notion, even Alice herself.

When it came to flight or flight, she was always a flight never a fight. But that seemed to change as she as her first instinct fought for prehaps the first time in her life.

Alice couldn't quite make out how she felt about that notion before a hoard of the thorny vines came flying toward her along with a thousand insults.

"You little whore!"

"Overgrown weed!"

"We've put up with you for too long!"

Instantly she began swinging her sword knife around, slashing away as much of the vines as she could, but it ended up being an impossible task.

Alice yelped as one of the vines wrapped around her ankle, the thorns digging into her skin and then vine pulling on her leg. Throwing her off her balance and making her fall, the roses laughing at her misfortune.

"You might have grown but you're still just the same bratty weedling!"

She hit the ground, but kept her grip on her sword knife and instantly sat up then began to try and slash at the vine dragging by the ankle. 

"Oh I don't think so!"

Another vine eached out and wrapped around both of her wrist, and pulled back her arm so hard that Alice felt like her arm was going to be ripped off. She clenched her sword knife even harder, not letting it go despite the thorns burying into her wrist.

She attempted to free her arm or cut the vine with her sword knife but it was in vain, as with how limited her wrist movement was she couldn't attempt to cut anything with her sword knife.

The other vine still wrapped around her ankle continued to pull even harder and so did the other vine, lifting her slightly off the ground each pulling in different directions.

"Nothing like a game of tug of war!" A rose hissed.

Alice felt her heart sink and her panic rise.

They were attempting to pull her apart, like she was some rope that two children pulld on at separate sides until it broke at the middle.

Frantically Alice used her other leg to start kicking at the other vine, pushing it off, the thorns cutting through her skin.

"What are you doing!?" A rose growled

"Trying to get your foot destroyed so we don't have to!?" One laughed

Alice felt her eyes water from the pain, she bared through it, finally pushing it to her boot then wiggling her foot out of it.

"Hey!" A rose called out.

Her lower body dropped to the ground and the rest was still being pulled closer to her tormentors.

Alice planted her feet as good as she could in the ground, standing herself up and then twisting, if she couldn't bring her sword knife to the vine she'll bring the vine to the sword knife!

"Oh the poor things confused!" A rose laughed seeing Alice twirl.

She continued to spin tripping once giving the roses a good laugh but quickly scrambled back on her feet, and spinning again, finally the vine wrapped around the sword knife cutting it off.

Alice fell back, landing on her bum. 

The roses were quick to shout at her

"Get her!"

"Don't let that ugly weed escape!"

"We need to put her out of misery!"

She quickly removed the remaining sharp vines, standing back up, quickly attempting to run, moving her feet as fast as she could.

"Get her! We can't let her get away the little tramp!" One yelled out.

The vines continued to lash out at her, Alice managed to slice away two, but one wrapped around her arm which thanks to the Duchesses coat didn't pierce her skin.

"Got you now!" The rose hissed.

Alice attempted to turn and slash at it, but she turned to sharp and too suddenly that she ended up losing her footing and fell down though her arm still being raised thanks to the vine

The flowers laughed, "Poor thing! Doesn't even know how to walk!"

She cursed her clumsiness, but attempted to still slash at the vine but as she managed to get rid of that one, another one wrapped around her waist and pulled her up.

It tore at her dress and definitely poked into her corset but didn't touch her skin.

Guess the stuffy clothing did have a use afterall.

Another vines came and grabbed her hair, pulling out of its bun and yanking Alices head back rather forcefully. Making her yelp in pain.

"Look at this mess! What man would find this attractive!" The rose hissed

Alice managed to swing her knife sword at it, cutting off the vine though part of it still remained in her hair.

"Little foolzer!" One of them hissed. 

Then one vine wrapped around her arm pulling it back, before Alice could even attempt to slash it away another vine wrapped around her other arm pulling it back clenching it so hard, burying their thorns so deep into her flesh that she let out a scream in pain and making her drop the knife sword.

Dammit! Now she was hopeless!

Alice attempted to kick and struggle but she only succeeded in burying the thorns deeper into her.

"Oh! Poor weedling!" A rose hissed, "Ugly as shit and thinner than a twig! Your mother should have dumped you into the river and saved anyone the displeasure of seeing you!"

"But we'll do the task for her!" Another one yelled wrapping a vines around her neck, the thorns sinking into her. If those didn't kill her from sinking too deep then she surely suffocate.

Frustrated and scared Alice cursed them, "Damn all of you!" She yelled, she couldn't die like this! She hadn't fixed the mess she made in wonderland! She hadn't met the hatter yet!

"Such foul language!" A rose growled, "Somone ought to shut you up!"

A vine rammed into her face surely cutting her cheek or her lip, Alice kept her mouth shut but as the thorne sinked into her throat she she screamed in pain again and the thorny vine got pushed into her mouth cutting her tongue and inside her cheeks.

Blood began to fill her mouth making Alice cough and gap on her own blood.

"Oh! She can barely take any of it! You think the hatter would train his whore better!" The rose yelled pushing the vine deeper into her mouth and cutting more of her insides.

Blood began to pour out of Alices mouth and from her neck, she continued to gag on the vine harder and harder each time before finally vomiting. The throw up covering the vine and herself.

"Disgusting!" The rose hissed removing her vine.

Alice groaned in relief, coughing up the rest of her vomit and blood. She had never been so thankful to throw up than in that moment.

"Shouldn't be surprised, we all know what a disgusting whore she it!" Another vine reached her breast, "Just look at whore body!"

The vines then began to tear away at her dress, laughter following it.

Alice attempted to say something but only blood came out and honestly it was hard to focus on anything. Her vision was getting blurry, and it was getting harder to breath.

The vine around her neck got tighter, the thorns going deeper.

Alice felt complete dread seize her, she was about to die. 

This was her end.

Alice closed her eyes as tears fell down her face.

Suddenly though, the roses torments and laughs turned into screams of pain and terror, then Alice felt herself drop to the ground.

Slowly she opened her eyes, unable to properly make out anything for a second. As her vision cleared up she could make out the gound that was had the roses corpses scattered among it. And a pair of black boots walking toward her.

Slowly she turned her head slightly to see the face that belonged to the boots, and though she didn't recognize him at first when he talked she knew exactly who it was.

"Alice?" He asked his rough scottish accent still the same.

Alice smiled, "Hatter..."


End file.
